The doctrine of "fighting words" was first articulated by the United States Supreme Court in 1942 in the case of Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire when it declared one classificaton of language as outside the bounds of constitutional guarantees. Since then the Court has continually redrawn the line defining which speech is constitutionally…

Analysis of the role of paraphrase in the cohesion of everyday oral discourse suggests that combining two methodological approaches to discourse analysis, using distribution of specific discourse elements and sequential relationships within discourse, creates a more empirical foundation for analysis, leading to a more accurate formulation of the…

This paper examines the government's authority to regulate indecent broadcasts, beginning with a historical overview of the Federal Communication Commission's (FCC) involvement with broadcast indecency and its application in case law. First Amendment considerations are discussed and some suggestions are made regarding how the Commission should…

This paper suggests that it may be productive for all teachers to become students of metaphor, as least of their own metaphors. Careful attention of how one describes the world appears to give clues as to how one constructs it. Such constructions can come under scrutiny only when one speaks or writes, and then attends to the language one has used.…

This paper examines the socio-cultural problems affecting new immigrants. The first part presents a person-centered ecological theoretical framework with two points of departure: the individual in his/her biological cognitive and socio-cultural sphere, and the person's communicative behavior. The data is drawn largely from a 1967-1979 project in…

Reading Old English poses many problems for a beginning student. Even though it has some similarities to modern English, the special characters, obsolete words, inflected grammar, and alien word order of Old English makes it difficult for Old English neophytes to reconstruct the propositional content in a poem such as "Beowulf." Experts…

Research has shown that producers and consumers of television programs are still uncertain about the nature of the "grammar" or "lexicon" that makes up the language of television. Although attempts have been made in experimental television ("video art"), systematic studies on the idiosyncratic nature, unique features,…

Two ideas about language as communication that can guide teachers' thinking about language, their observations of their pupils' language, and their curriculum planning activities are that (1) language is a social enterprise, and (2) language provides the means of distancing oneself from the here and now. When teachers make use of these two ideas,…

A phrasebook for Polish-speaking refugees in the United States groups phrases in 19 units covering a wide range of situations and introducing the daily activities of American life. Two wordlists, one Polish-English and one English-Polish, provide the terms most frequently needed. The book is intended as a reference book for immediate use and not…

A phrasebook for Czech-speaking refugees in the United States groups phrases in 19 units covering a wide range of situations and introducing the daily activities of American life. Two wordlists, one Czech-English and one English-Czech, provide the terms most frequently needed. The book is intended as a reference book for immediate use and not as a…

A phrasebook for Romanian-speaking refugees in the United States groups phrases in 19 units covering a wide range of situations and introducing the daily activities of American life. Two wordlists, one Romanian-English and one English-Romanian, provide the terms most frequently needed. The book is intended as a reference book for immediate use and…

Designed to develop and to share information and resources on child abuse and neglect, child welfare, and youth services in Region VIII (Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Montana), the Family Resource Center, a federally funded two year program, has developed a directory containing names, addresses, phone numbers and…

Foreign language teachers should be aware of certain sociolinguistic concepts that can be termed "language ecology," which has been defined as the study of a "language and its environment." These concepts are: classification, users, domains of use, concurrent languages, internal varieties, written traditions, standardization,…

Since the Japanese writing system seems to frighten secondary school students as a compulsory study, the author recommends teaching only Romanized Japanese at the high school level. (PMP)

Compares the responses of black and white children for cultural features of standard English. (RB)