bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Turn-Taking on the Telephone: Textual Features Which Distinguish Turn-Final and Turn-Medial Utterances
Authors: Stephens Jane , Beattie Geoffrey
Published: June 2009

This study was designed to investigate some important aspects of turn-taking in one type of structured telephone conversation, namely, travel enquiry calls. Specifically, it investigated under what conditions subjects could distinguish turn-final and turn-medial utterances taken from such conversations and presented out of context. The first part of the investigation sought to determine if judges could make this distinction on the basis of an audio presentation of the utterances or on the basis of a typescript of the utterances. We found that judges could distinguish turn-final and turn-medial utterances when presented in audio form, they could not, however, distinguish turn-final and turn-medial utterances on the basis of a typescript alone, except in the case of utterances sampled from just one operator. The second part of the investigation was designed to determine what aspects of verbal content were important in guiding the subjects' judgement of completion on the basis of typescript alone. We looked specifically at the role of topic (for example, utterances concerning ‘time’ or ‘cost’ information) and mode of expression (for example ‘impersonal’ or ‘personal’ mode) in marking turn-final and turn-medial utterances in these calls. We found that it was specific combinations of topic and mode of expression which were most important in allowing subjects to identify turn-final and turn-medial utterances. This interaction was of more significance than either of these two features alone. The general conclusion from this study is that the interaction between meaning and syntax is crucial to the organisation of the turn-taking process, at least in structured telephone conversations.
Predicting Impressions of Speakers from Voice Quality: Acoustic and Perceptual Measures
Authors: Pittam Jeffery , Gallois Cynthia
Published: June 2009

This study examined the relationship of an acoustic measure of speech based on the Long-Term Average Spectrum (LTAS), expert ratings of five voice qualities (breathy, creaky, nasal, tense, and whispery voices), and naive ratings of status and solidarity. Six male and six female speakers recorded a standard passage in the five voice types; these recordings were then analysed acoustically using the LTAS, judged by expert coders, and rated by undergraduate students. A two-stage path analysis revealed significant prediction from the LTAS to expert ratings on all voice qualities except nasality. In addition, creaky, nasal, and tense voices were negatively related to solidarity judgements, and nasal voice was negatively related to status judgements. These results point to the usefulness of the LTAS in measuring voice quality, as well as to the importance of perceptual judgements in connecting physical measures of the voice to impressions of speakers. Finally, the results suggest that the ‘ideal’ voice may be characterised by only small amounts of all these voice qualities.
Politeness Strategies and Doctor-Patient Communication. On the Social Choreography of Collaborative Thinking
Authors: Aronsson Karin , Sätterlund-Larsson Ullabeth
Published: June 2009

Doctor-patient communication was studied in the light of Brown and Levinson's politeness model. Forms of address, different request and questioning strategies, and feedback patterns were analysed for their significance in the regulation of social distance; herein called the social choreography of medical discourse. Approaching and avoidance moves were explored with respect to sequencing as shown in the consultation phase structure, and in episodes of disagreement. It was demonstrated how doctors' ‘thinking-aloud sequences' require active patient collaboration. Patients' opposition, as revealed in avoidance strategies and minimal feedback, resulted in vague and ambiguous medical decisions. Likewise, doctors' indirectness (‘negative politeness strategies) would soften requests and questioning on the one hand, but ambiguate communication on the other.
The Courtroom Hearing as a Middle Ground: Speech Accommodation by Lawyers and Defendants
Authors: Aronsson Karin , Jönsson Linda , Linell Per
Published: June 2009

A criminal court trial may be characterised in terms of interactional asymmetry and by largely conflicting goals and interests on the part of the principal actors. It is also an arena where different linguistic varieties and modes of interaction meet. In this paper, we analyse Swedish court hearings as a middle ground where actors, defendants as well as legal professionals, attenuate a number of differences in their respective discourse styles, e.g. as regards vocabulary and information density. Despite what defendants claim in interviews, they themselves attenuate their colloquial jargons when they speak to judges and lawyers in courts. At the other side, legal professionals routinely change their language considerably as they move from the monological phases of the trials to the rather informal dialogical phases (hearings), in which they directly interact with defendants. Furthermore, professionals are also shown to accommodate to the linguistic styles of individual defendants (as regards level of information density). Results are interpreted in terms of speech accommodation theory and provide support for the validity of the theory for authentic interaction in real social life.
Finding Fault
Authors: Morris G. H.
Published: June 2009

To explore how social actors find fault with others' conduct, transcripts of 84 problematic events were analysed. The depiction of fault-finding methods that emerged differs from earlier research in stressing the extensiveness and negotiability of action in problematic events. A larger number of fault-finding methods, which pertain to present and future, in addition to past faults, are included within the domain of fault finding. The process of finding fault is characterised as an active, interpretive, negotiative process. Included in the process are formulations of events as problematic, accusations, explanation demands, stops, explanations of stops, and advisories. Excerpts of talk are provided to exemplify each of these methods, and the within-category variation and co-occurrence of methods are explored. Limitations of the study and several prospects for future work are mentioned.
Testing the Focusing Hypothesis of the Mannheim Model of Speech Production: Desperately Seeking Activation
Authors: Egel Heidi , Herrmann Theo , Scheven Anke
Published: June 2009

Herrmann (1985) has developed a three-stage model of speech production. The three levels comprise: (1) focusing a propositional output basis, (2) selection and linearisation, and (3) encoding. In order to speak, a speaker has to turn her/his attention to those situational aspects s/he intends to talk about. Out of the set of focused elements will be selected only those appropriate for the utterance intended to be encoded next. The different processing levels should be characterised by different activational states. The aim of this study was to investigate the first stage of the model. The focusing hypothesis was tested by means of the lexical decision task, and the experimental results confirmed the hypothesis.
Informativeness and Instrumentality in Referential Communication
Authors: Mangold Roland , Pobel Rupert
Published: June 2009

Speakers produce verbal utterances in order to achieve certain goals. As a necessary precondition of the instrumentality of a verbal message the listener must be informed about what is meant. But the example of referential communication shows that the structure and content of referential expressions cannot solely be predicted by the principle of instrumentality. The results of three naming experiments show that in addition to totally discriminative attributes—which are necessary and sufficient for unambiguous object identification—other features of the intended object are specified. Two object identification experiments then make clear that speakers tend to overspecify those attributes of a target which facilitate the listener's object search. The consequences of these correspondences for the assumption of a ‘listener-oriented’ strategy of object reference are discussed.
Perspective Structure in Language Production and Comprehension
Authors: Graumann Carl F. , Sommer C. Michael
Published: June 2009

‘Perspective’ is a common term in phenomenology, in social psychology, and in language psychology. The perceptual, cognitive and social evidence gathered in these different contexts points towards a cognitive theory of perspectivity which we are constructing and trying to apply to phenomena of language production and comprehension in a social context. Several experiments demonstrate the influence of perspective on text production and text comprehension. It is shown that perspective affects not only content variables but also linguistic structure. The results show effects on macrostructures, verbs and verbal slips, as well as on the choice of the grammatical subject and on inferences about the events and actors presented in a film or in a text. Effects are produced by perspectives of speaker as well as of hearer and by perspectives linguistically realised in a text. Implications for a conception of cognitive and linguistic perspectivity are discussed.
Speaking Like a Skipper: 'Skippin' an' Gettin' High'
Authors: Eggert Leona L. , Nicholas Liela J.
Published: June 2009

'Skipping' classes in high school was examined here as a cultural form of language behaviour among a group of high-school students. This ethnographic study focused on the analysis of 'skipping' as a 'text' or 'text-analogue' that was open to interpretation by fellow 'Skippers' by members of the school community, and by communication researchers. A major study finding was the the genre of skipping was a game, played by two subgroups within the Skippers' speech community: the Smart Skippers and the Don't Care Skippers. Thus defined, it was shown to have structure, style, and mode analogous to various components of games: i.e. players, objectives, rules, suggestions for better play methods of keeping score, and consequences for winners and losers. Drug use and abuse cooccurred as suggested by the cover term, skippin' an' gettin' high. Skippers' speech style had a restricted code one that revealed a 'play with words and actions' in their life at school and beyond. Skipping served three primary functions for Skippers: creating tension in play/work, belonging/not belonging, and power and control dimensions of their life at school and home. Other key players in the skipping game were teachers and parents. Implications of the study are drawn for the primary prevention of two major adolescent health and developmental problems: drug involvement and school dropout.
Strangers in a Strange Land: The Ph.D. in the Land of the Medical Doctor
Authors: Burgoon Michael
Published: June 2009

This essay contains the comments made by Professor Burgoon in his plenary address at the 41st meeting of the International Communication Association. Burgoon expresses concern about the communication researcher's role in the study of doctor-patient interaction. He argues that the communication scholar potentially does more harm than good. Burgoon outlines the underlying assumptions which guide current research and application and then offers suggestions for more fruitful research directions.
Fluency in the Production of Requests: Effects of Degree of Imposition, Schematicity and Instruction Set
Authors: Meyer Janet R.
Published: June 2009

Recent work by Greene & Lindsey (1989) and Greene, Lindsey & Hawn (1990) indicates that speakers are less fluent when addressing multiple goals than when addressing a single goal. In that research, subjects were explicitly instructed to address either a single goal or multiple goals. The present study asks whether fluency is affected by variations in situational features that bear upon the likelihood that a speaker will naturally activate a face-saving goal. Subjects produced requests in four hypothetical request situations that varied in the degree of imposition on the hearer and in schematicity. Half of the subjects were encouraged to address negative face needs (instruction condition) and half were not (noinstruction condition). In the no-instruction condition, onset latency, pause-to-phonation ratio, the false start rate, the filled pause rate, and the repetition rate were significantly greater in high-imposition than in low-imposition request situations. In the instruction condition, the pause-to-phonation ratio, false start rate and filled pause rate were not influenced by the degree of imposition. The results are consistent with the view that a perception of high imposition gives rise to a negative face goal, with a resulting detrimental effect upon fluency. The effect of degree of imposition on fluency did not depend upon whether the request situations were schematic or unschematic.
Effects of Language Intensity Similarity on Perceptions of Credibility Relational Attributions, and Persuasion
Authors: Aune R. Kelly , Kikuchi Toshiyuki
Published: June 2009

Communication accommodation theory was used to predict relationships between the degree of similarity of a source's and receiver's use of language intensity and attributions made about the source of a message. A sample of 286 respondents, whose use of language intensity had been assessed, read a persuasive message written with either high or low language intensity. Actual similarity between respondents'and stimulus language intensity was positively correlated withperceptions of source credibility (sociability /character, extraversion) and immediacy, and negatively correlated with arousal. Perceived similarity in language intensity was also positively correlated with credibility perceptions (competence, sociabilityy/character, composure), as well as immediacy and intimacy, and negatively correlated with arousal. Both actual and perceived similarity were associated with increased message agreement. Actual and perceived language intensity similarity were weakly correlated. In all analyses perceived similarity in language intensity was the stronger predictor of source attributions. Possible message processing differences arising from perceived and actual language intensity similarity are discussed.
Developmental Changes in Ingroup Favouritism among Bilingual and Unilingual Francophone and Anglophone Students
Authors: Guimond Serge , Palmer Douglas L.
Published: June 2009

Relations between bilingualism and intergroup attitudes are examined among 663 Francophone students in Quebec, 521 Anglophone cadets at an Ontario military college, and in a longitudinal Anglophone 271-student sample from an Ontario university. In each of the three samples, among older students, unilinguals display ingroupfavouritism; bilinguals do not. Educational level is positively related to ingroup favouritism among unilinguals. Among bilinguals, educational level and favouritism are negatively related in all samples but, while Anglophone bilinguals move from ingroup favouritism to equal evaluations at later levels, Francophone bilinguals move from outgroup favouritism at earlier levels to equal evaluations later. AmongAnglophone respondents, contact with the second-language group is associated with greater levels of ingroup favouritism among respondents with low levels of second-language proficiency. Longitudinal analyses, in the Anglophone university sample, suggest that unilinguals undergo negative contact effects, whereas at the military college, longitudinal analyses (n = 336) reveal increased ingroup favouritism by cadets experiencing failure in second-language training. Among Francophones, relations of bilingualism with attitudes toward other groups are mixed in direction, whereas among Anglophones, relations are uniformly positive. Results are discussed with respect to social identity theory and the social psychology of language.
Speech a La Mode
Authors: Francis Jill , Wales Roger
Published: June 2009

Forty sentences, each containing one of five modal auxiliaries (must, should, can, would, and might), were recorded by four speakers (two males, two females), using three patterns of emphatic stress (stress on modal, stress on main verb, and no stress). For each sentence, respondents (N = 55) were asked to judge the degree of certainty and the degree of obligation being communicated. Judgments were found to differ according to modal used; stress pattern used, with stress on the main verb resulting in higher certainty and obligation ratings for most modals; and sex of the respondent, with females expressing stronger judgments than males. Respondents listened to the recordings in four blocks. Each block comprised 10 sentences uttered by one speaker. After listening to each speaker, respondents rated that speaker on an impression scale. Male respondents rated male speakers higher than female speakers on assertiveness. There was some indication that, when speakers employed a medium pitch range across the utterance, certainty and obligation ratings were higher and impression ratings were more favourable, than when a wide pitch range was used. Results were seen to support the interpersonal functional component of language.
Simultaneous Speech in Small Group Conversation
Authors: Dunne Michael , Ng Sik Hung
Published: June 2009

From a turn-takingperspective, simultaneous speech in conversation can be an aberration according to the one-speaker-at-a-time norm or a legitimate form of nondisruptive talk according to the all-together-now view. A coding system was devised that identified unambiguous instances of both of these types of simultaneous speech and tested whether the relative distribution of these two types of simultaneous speech varies according to the characteristics of conversation (Experiments 1 and 2) and whether the content of the two types of simultaneous speech differs (Experiment 3). The results from Experiments 1 and 2 confirmed that there are two distinct types of simultaneous speech coexisting in the same conversation and showed that changes in participant familiarity (but not topic orientation) were significantly related to variations in the relative distribution of the two types of simultaneous speech. The results of Experiment 3 showed that the content of the two types of simultaneous speech differs along a supportive (all-together-now simultaneous speech) and unsupportive (one-at-a-time simultaneous speech) dimension.
Adopting Gender-Inclusive Language Reforms
Authors: Rubin Donald L. , Greene Kathryn , Schneider Deidra
Published: June 2009

Previous research demonstrates a decline across time in gender-exclusive language among language users who are occupationally mandated to conform to nonsexist language guidelines (e.g., journalists). Little prior research, however, bears on changes across time among language users who are not thus constrained. Some prior studies do suggest that individual difference variables such as psychological gender-role schema and attitudes toward sexist language predict the degree to which individuals will adopt these language reforms. Study 1 addresses the diachronic issue by examining gender-exclusive language in public speeches delivered by male business leaders across three decades. Gender-exclusive language did decline from the 1960s to the 1970s. Study 2 examines both gender-exclusive and gender-inclusive language in the writing of male and female college students in two writing tasks. Study 2 also considers language users'gender-role schema and their attitudes toward sexist language. For production of gender-exclusive language, males greatly exceeded females. For production of gender-inclusive language, an inverse relation with instrumental (traditionally male) gender-role orientation was found. Moreover, biological males and females each controlled distinct repertoires of linguistic strategies. Situational differences (an expressive vs. an instrumental writing task) exerted more powerful effects on gender-inclusive language than did gender. These findings dictate that simplistic formulations about relations between gender-related attitudes and language usage should be recast.
Script Formulations
Authors: Edwards Derek
Published: June 2009

A qualitative analysis of conversational extracts is presented, in which participants formulate the nature of actions and events as "scripted" (typical or routine) or exceptional. Such formulations are shown to be interactionally occasioned and rhetorically oriented constructions of events. The perceptual-realist assumptions of cognitive script theory are questioned. Discourse theory ispreferredfor its capacity to acknowledge thepsychological reality of script-based understandings, while dealing with the empirical details of spontaneous event descriptions. Events may be descriptively offered as singular items, as instances of general patterns, as exceptions, or as generalized patterns themselves. Formulating events as instances of, or exceptions to, scripted patterns attends to issues of accountability and is used to construct the dispositional character of actors. The analysis focuses on the precise event details invoked in spontaneous talk, the construction of events as scripted or otherwise, and the ways in which such event reportings perform actions in their own right.
Interpersonal Deception VII
Authors: Buller David B. , Burgoon Judee K. , White Cindy H. , Ebesu Amy S.
Published: June 2009

Previous research on deception has typically examined how deceivers behave when falsifying information in a noninteractive context. Guided by Interpersonal Deception Theory, the authors propose that deception may take a variety of forms, reflecting differences in the way senders strategically control message information and the differences in the behavioral profiles accompanying those strategies. The current experiment examined the impact of deception type (falsification, concealment, equivocation), receiver suspicion, receiver expertise, and relational familiarity on strategic and nonstrategic behavior Two adult samples, novices and experts (military intelligence instructors), participated. Interviewers, half of whom were induced to be suspicious, followed a standard protocol of questions. Interviewees answered the first two questions truthfully and then enacted one of the deception forms. Participants evaluated one another's behavior after the interview, and trained coders measured the nonverbal behavior No clear behavioral profile emerged for deception in general. Instead, behaviors associated with deception were strongly influenced by deception type, suspicion, and familiarity, suggesting that preinteractional and interactional features are important determinants of sender behavior. Of the deception types, participants rated equivocation as most brief, vague, and hesitant, whereas falsification was rated lowest on these characteristics. Behaviorally, senders were best able to suppress behavioral activity when equivocating and least able to when falsifying.
Interpersonal Deception VIII
Authors: Buller David B. , Burgoon Judee K. , Buslig Aileen L. S. , Roiger James F.
Published: June 2009

This article reports on a secondary analysis offive studies performed originally by Bavelas and colleagues in 1990 to further describe the behavioral profile associated with one common type of deception, equivocation. This analysis was grounded in Interpersonal Deception Theory (IDT) posited by Burgoon and Buller in 1994. Ratings of information dimensions revealed that equivocal statements were found to be less clear and conversationally complete than truthful statements. Nonverbal involvement, fluency, dominance, formality cues, time spent talking, response latency, smiling, nodding, and linguistic immediacy cues were compared in responses under conflict (equivocal statements) and no conflict (truthful statements). Consistent with IDT, senders enacted information management (appearing more withdrawn) and behavior management (being more kinesically expressive). Senders also showed arousal (more tension cues), negative affect (less pleasantness), and performance decrements (more filled pauses) when equivocating. This suggested that behavior management was achieved through interchannel compensation; however, equivocation consequently contained channel discrepancies. The behavioral profile of equivocation did not depart substantially from that associated with falsification. Rather, equivocation and falsification showed a general deception profile of greater kinesic expressiveness, shorter response latencies, and more linguistic immediacy in the experiment comparing truthful, falsified, and equivocal replies.
Personality, Attitudes, and Affect as Predictors of Second Language Communication
Authors: MacIntyre Peter D. , Charos Catherine
Published: June 2009

Numerous studies have established the importance of affective variables, such as attitudes, motivation, perceived competence, and anxiety, in predicting success in second language learning and communication. Path analysis was used to investigate the relations among these variables, to examine their impacton the frequency ofsecond language communication, and to examine the role of global personality traits. Significant paths affecting the frequency of communication were found, from willingness to communicate in the second language (2), language learning motivation, perceived L2 communicative competence, and the opportunity for contact with L2 speakers. Further results demonstrate thatglobal personality traits and language-related affective variables (such as attitudes and anxiety) set the psychological context for second language communication. These results are interpreted in terms of models of second language learning and communication.
Effects of Ethnolinguistic Vitality, Ethnic Identification, and Linguistic Contacts on Minority Language Use
Authors: Hogg Michael A. , Rigoli Ninetta
Published: June 2009

Recent developments in ethnolinguistic vitality research appear to place agreater emphasis on interpersonal language experiences than on the wider intergroup context of ethnolinguistic phenomena. A questionnaire was administered to second-generation Italian Australians to predict Italian language competence and use from (a) subjective ethnolinguistic vitality (SEV), (b) ethnolinguistic identification, (c) societal language support, and (d) interpersonal language experience (interpersonal networks oflinguistic contacts-INLC). Multiple regression procedures revealed, as predicted from social-identity and intergroup perspectives, that language behavior was associated with societal-level language support and, in some circumstances, with ethnolinguistic identification, but not with INLC. It was further revealed that identification was mainly predicted by societal level language support, not by INLC. Unexpectedly, SEV had little relationship with identification or language use.
Communicating about Communication in a Therapeutic Interview
Authors: Grossen Michtle , Apotheloz Denis
Published: June 2009

The aim of this article is to focus on the conversational and interactional processes by which the patient and the therapist make sense of a therapeutic situation and give meaning to the problem at the origin of the consultation. The article presents a method of analysis that relies on a specific conversational activity: reformulation. After a brief definition of this activity and a presentation of the method, a few sequences of reformulation concerning communication are analyzed at three different levels: the semantic level, the relational level, and the facework level, which refers to the management of the actors' identities. The conclusions focus on some specificities of the therapist's activity, namely the transformation of the patient's discourse into a defined problem; the therapist's change ofperspective vis-e-vis that of the patient; the therapist's implicit teaching role regarding the interactional rules of the situation, social values and norms, and scientific theories and jargon.
Class Ethos and Politeness
Authors: Kleiner Brian
Published: June 2009

This article lends quantitative support to the notion that politeness is variable across social strata, and provides linguistic evidence for the notion of a "social class ethos.' This difference is shown to be encoded in ordinary usage, within the genre of direction giving. Interpretation of the natural language data collected is based here on Brown and Levinson's "politeness theory" (1978, 1987). The data give evidence that middle-class speakers are more likely to make use of the more elaborated negative politeness strategy, with suggestions being issued in an indirect way. Workingclass speakers tend to choose the "bald-on record" strategy, suggesting directions in the form of direct bald imperatives. Variable speaker perceptions of social distance across the two classes give the results found in the data.
Interability Communication
Authors: Fox Susan Anne , Giles Howard
Published: June 2009

This investigation is a first empirical attempt, using an intergroup perspective, to socially evaluate patronizing speech in encounters involving people with and without disabilities. Respondents read a vignette involving a person with a disability being either patronized or not being patronized and then made attributions and evaluations about the conversational interactants. As predicted, results revealed that recipients and third party interactants of patronizing speech were rated as feeling less supported and less comfortable than when involved in a nonpatronizing encounter. In addition, the patronizer was rated as more incompetent, insensitive, and unsocial in the former than in the latter condition. These and many other findings were interpreted within a framework that included social identity, intergroup contact, and communication accommodation theories.
Young People's Evaluations of Intergenerational Versus Peer Underaccommodation
Authors: Williams Angie
Published: June 2009

Research concerned with social perceptions of older people has suggested that they are commonly viewed in rather negative stereotypical ways. Takingan intergroup perspective, this study examined young people's perceptions of communication underaccommodation (inattention, nonlistening, and interrupting) in an intergenerational versus a peer-young context. Results revealed that, as expected, the underaccommodative conversations were perceived to be much more dissatisfying than those that were not underaccommodative. However, contrary to expectations, results revealed that the older person was consistently perceived more positively than the younger person. A follow-up study suggested that respondents may have viewed the older person rather benevolently, making allowances for her underaccommodations that they were unwilling to make for the younger person. Results are discussed in terms of both positive and negative ageism.
Identity, Cognition, and Language in Intergroup Context
Authors: Hogg Michael A.
Published: June 2009

Seven social psychological themes or foci are identified in this special issue on intergroup communication: social identity, social beliefs, attitudes, face-to-face interaction in groups, intergroup contact, naturally occurring intergroup contexts, and hidden prejudice. Each article is examined in turn, and then the themes are discussed generally in relation to the field of language and social psychology. The conclusion to be drawn is that there continues to be a close and scientifically profitable relationship between social psychology and the study of language-especially in the area of intergroup communication. In particular, there is promise for stronger links between the study of language and the study of social cognition, perhaps through the study of categorisation-contingent cognitive representation of self and others as group members.
Ancestral Language Acquisition
Authors: Imbens-Bailey Alison L.
Published: June 2009

This article investigates associations between the acquisition of an ancestral language and ethnic affinity. Narratives about Armenian and non-Armenian cultural activities, and attitudes toward language usage and culture were elicited from 44 boys and girls aged 8-15 years. Some of the children spokeArmenian in addition to English, but all were active in an Armenian American community. American-born bilingual children were found to use relatively more first person plural pronouns than singular pronouns in stories aboutArmenian cultural activities compared with English-only speaking children of Armenian descent and foreign-born bilingual children, suggesting thatAmerican-born bilingual children may have closer affinity with theArmenianAmerican community than either monolingual or foreign-born bilingual children. Differences between the groups in attitude toward bicultural background also were found. Monolinguals made relatively fewer positive evaluations of their bicultural experiences than either the American-born or foreign-born bilingual children.
"Twelve Angry Men"
Authors: Verkuyten Maykel
Published: June 2009

A numerical minority position is commonly associated with error, deviance, and/or weakness. Therefore, being a minority member poses a threat and minority members are urged to explain and account for their position. The present study has concentrated on how two British newspapers that strongly identified with the minority position taken by Britain at the European Union Maastricht summit in 1991 account for this position. The newspapers were analyzed in terms of how systems of social categorization are being constructed and the argumentative strategies used in identity construction. Various forms of discourse analysis focus on specific discursive devices and grammatical repertoires, whereas the present analysis shows the constellation of representations in identity construction. It is shown that the explanations draw upon a constellation of constructions and definitions that all work together in providing a justificatory account.
Interpersonal Impressions, Gender Stereotypes, and Visual Speech
Authors: Daly Nicola , Bench John , Chappell Hilary
Published: June 2009

This study had two aims: (a) to establish whether interpersonal impressions made from visual speech followed the same patterns as those made from auditory speech; and (b) to determine the effect of gender stereotypes on interpersonal impressions made from visual speech. Forty-eight speechreaders (24 male and 24 female) saw 24 talkers (12 male and 12 female) on videotape without sound. After speechreading, speechreaders rated each talker on 14 semantic differential items. Factor analysis of the items revealed three factors, labelled Solidarity, Status, and Performance. Significant talker gender differences were shown in Status and Performance ratings, reflecting gender stereotypes. Variation in semantic differential scores contributed to a small but significant proportion of the variation in speechreading scores. Gender differences in this relationship also mirrored gender stereotypes. The results are discussed with reference to literature concerning speech perception, language attitude, and impression formation with auditorily received language, and gender stereotypes.
Linguistic Landscape and Ethnolinguistic Vitality
Authors: Landry Rodrigue , Bourhis Richard Y.
Published: June 2009

Linguistic landscape refers to the visibility and salience of languages on public and commercial signs in agiven territory or region. It is proposed that the linguistic landscape may serve important informational and symbolic functions as a marker of the relative power and status of the linguistic communities inhabiting the territory. Using the theoretical framework of ethnolinguistic vitality, it was hypothesized that the experience of the linguistic landscape by members of a language group may contribute to social psychological aspects of bilingual development. Factor analysis results show that the linguistic landscape emerges as a distinct factor separate from other measures of linguistic contacts. This factor was an important correlate of subjective ethnolinguistic vitality representing perceptions of the vitality of the in-group language in various domains. The study also found relations between the Linguistic Landscape factor and degree of in-group language use, especially in institutional settings, suggesting a 'carryover effect" of the linguistic landscape on language behavior.
Recall of Medication Instructions by Young and Elderly Adult Women
Authors: Gould Odette N. , Dexon Roger A.
Published: June 2009

We tested the effectiveness of overaccommodative speech as a way to improve comprehension and recall of diagnostic and medication regimen instructions. Forty younger (M age = 21 years) and 82 older (M age = 71 years) adult women watched a videotape of an actor presenting medication instructions in either an overaccommodative or a neutral speaking style. Only older women with higher working memory performance levels benefited from overaccommodative speech. All groups had similar subjective reactions to the two types of stimuli: They preferred the speech attributes in the overaccommodative speech but preferred the person attributes of the neutral speaker. Finally, for older but not younger women, subjective reactions to the speaker predicted recall performance over and above age and working memory ability.
Implicit Verb Causality
Authors: Rudolph Udo
Published: June 2009

Two experiments are reported to analyze the psychological causality implicit in language. In Study 1, an extension of the existing verb classifications is empirically tested to account for the finding that many action verbs give rise to attributions to the sentence object. Study 2 examines whether implicit causality for these agent-evocator verbs is mediated by the same mechanisms that are assumed to mediate this effect for other kinds of interpersonal actions and states. Taken together, results suggest that (a) the introduction of an action verb schema that gives rise to object attributions is a useful extension of the existing classifications of interpersonal verbs and (b) the mediation of implicit causality in all kinds of interpersonal verbs is governed by perceived covariation information. Thus, the present data support an explanation of implicit causality that is based on classical attribution variables.
Indirectness in Pronominal Usage in Akan Discourse
Authors: Obeng Samuel Gyasi
Published: June 2009

This article discusses the pragmatic import of Akan personal pronouns by examining different personal pronouns and showing their address and referential values and meanings. It also discusses how in certain communicational contexts, specific personal pronouns are used to index referents other than the ones conventionally associated with a particular form. Apart from having a first person reference, the first person pronoun may be used as a second or third person reference. The second person singular pronoun can, in addition to having second person reference, be used to mean first person. The third person may, apart from its normal reference, be used to index either the first or second person. The pronoun switching involves conventional indirectness It has relevance for politeness and occurs when insinuating, criticizing other people, drawing attention to social problems, complaining about an antisocial act, and showing friendliness or intimacy.
Talking about Generation X
Authors: Williams Angie , Coupland Justine , Folwell Annette , Sparks Lisa
Published: June 2009

In response to a recent explosion of media attention to so-called Generation X, the authors investigated youngpeoples'responses to media constructions of this generational category label. Twenty-six volunteers aged 19-23 participated in six audiotaped focus group discussions A discourse analytic perspective enables the authors to explore how these young participants worked together to negotiate their generational identity and their position in the life span vis-a-vis other generational groups. The respondents' talk uses personal accounts to reject the negative media stereotypes of Generation X, yet reveals that the media may be one of the defining characteristics of their generational identity. The analysis also reveals themes of out-group denigration and blame, which are interpreted as indicative of the intergroup processes triggered when groups are identified and made salient.
Collective Remembering in the Commtunicative Regulation of Group Action
Authors: Bangerter Adrian , Von Cranach Mario , Arn Christoph
Published: June 2009

Starting from a review of existing literature on collective or group memory, an actiontheoretical approach to the study of verbal remembering in task-oriented groups is presented. Memory processes on the group level are part of group communication and as such are functionally related to the regulation of group action and achievement of group goals. This was investigated in a simulated group action situation: Nine structured 4-person groups managed a computer simulation game together Task-related communication was subjected to content analysis to isolate memory utterances and collective memory processes, that is, sequences of thematically homogenous communicative references to past events. Different qualitative aspects of these collective memory processes (types of content) are investigated in relation to their function for ongoing action regulation.
Determinants of Gratitude Expressions in England
Authors: Okamoto Shinichiro , Robinson W. Peter
Published: June 2009

A field experiment (Study 1, N = 228) and a questionnaire study (Study 2, N = 120) were conducted to investigate determinants of gratitude expressions of British speakers. Based on Brown and Levinson's politeness theory, the main hypothesis was that the greater the giver's imposition in benefiting the receiver, the more polite the receiver's expression would be. Study 1 examined in four different situations participants' responses to a giver who opened a door for them. The experimenter's gaze and the extent of his imposition were shown to affect the results. Study 2 manipulated the extent of giver's imposition and the locus of the responsibility (neither, receiver, giver). Tendencies to use more polite expressions in the large-imposition conditions were as expected and were lessened in the giver-responsible situations. In addition, in receiver or giver-responsible situations, apology-type expressions were often used.
Attitudes toward Chinese-Accented Speech
Authors: Cargile Aaron Castelan
Published: June 2009

This matched-guise study provides data on attitudes toward Mandarin Chinese-accented English by eliciting both Angloand Asian Americans'reactions to a male speaker. Study 1 discovered that in the context ofan employment interview, a speaker of Chinese-accented English was treated no differently than a standard American-accented English counterpart was and thatAsian American listeners were less evaluatively generous when it came to estimations of the speaker's attractiveness than their Anglo-American counterparts were. Study 2 explored the results further and found that the same Chinese-accented speaker was deemed less attractive than the standard American-accented speaker in the context of a college classroom. Tbgether, these studies demonstrate a need to understand better the role played by context in shaping attitudes toward varieties of language.
Topic Progression and Social Categorization
Authors: Ohlschlegel Sonja , Piontkowski Ursula
Published: June 2009

Research on intergroup behavior and in the social psychology of language has examined the role of social categorization and language behavior in situations in which two ethnolinguistic groups come into contact. This study attempts to extend this domain of inquiry by addressing the role of coherence violations in topic progression during face-to-face intergroup communication. It is hypothesized that violations of neutral and local coherence toward out-group members are linguistic devices that participants in a conversation use to achieve positive social distinctiveness. An analysis of group discussions with highversus low-salient intergroup categorization-each between two East and two West Germans-confirms the hypothesis concerning the principle of neutral coherence. Violations of neutral coherence toward out-group members are significantly more frequent if intergroup categorization is of high salience.
Research Note: The Effects of Live Television Reporting on Recall and Appreciation of Political News
Authors: Snoeijer Roland , de Vreese Claes H. , Semetko Holli A.
Published: June 2009

This study investigates the effects of live and non-live reporting on recall and appreciation of political television news. A sample of 161 randomly selected adults participated in an experiment testing the effects of format difference (a live cross-talk between reporters vs a canned field report). Using an authentic experimental news bulletin produced in cooperation with the national Dutch public broadcaster, NOS, the findings did not support the hypothesis that the live cross-talk format enhances recall or appreciation. In fact, the results showed that the non-live field report format resulted in greater recall. These findings challenge the common newsroom assumption about the attractiveness of live reporting and have practical policy implications for both news practitioners and actors in the political arena.
A Critical Review and Assessment of Herman and Chomsky's`PropagandaModel'
Authors: Klaehn Jeffery
Published: June 2009

Mass media play an especially important role in democratic societies. They are presupposed to act as intermediary vehicles that reflect public opinion, respond to public concerns and make the electorate cognizant of state policies, important events and viewpoints. The fundamental principles of democracy depend upon the notion of a reasonably informed electorate. The `propaganda model' of media operations laid out and applied by Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky in Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media postulates that elite media interlock with other institutional sectors in ownership, management and social circles, effectively circumscribing their ability to remain analytically detached from other dominant institutional sectors. The model argues that the net result of this is self-censorship without any significant coercion. Media, according to this framework, do not have to be controlled nor does their behaviour have to be patterned, as it is assumed that they are integral actors in class warfare, fully integrated into the institutional framework of society, and act in unison with other ideological sectors, i.e. the academy, to establish, enforce, reinforce and `police' corporate hegemony. It is not a surprise, then, given the interrelations of the state and corporate capitalism and the `ideological network', that the propaganda model has been dismissed as a `conspiracy theory' and condemned for its `overly deterministic' view of media behaviour. It is generally excluded from scholarly debates on patterns of media behaviour. This article provides a critical assessment and review of Herman and Chomsky's propaganda model and seeks to encourage scholarly debate regarding the relationship between corporate power and ideology. Highly descriptive in nature, the article is concerned with the question of whether media can be seen to play a hegemonic role in society oriented towards legitimization, political accommodation and ideological management.