A previously unreported Amharic argot, that of a clique of unattached young women in a bar district of Addis Ababa, is described and traced to its source in a schoolboy argot of some dozen years earlier. The argot rules are simple, ingenious, and effective. A brief comparison is made of this argot and others in terms of social setting and uses. (Amharic, argots, Ethiopia, expressive language, language in context, language play, sociolinguistics)

Five examples are presented of how native speakers may try to explain a grammatical point to a linguist, and, in the absence of a suitable metalanguage, adopt some “lateral” way of demonstrating the point. They may, for instance, give another paradigmatic form of a word under scrutiny to show its word class; they may switch to another dialect to clarify some ambiguity; they may add some extra sentence constituents to each noun in a lexical elicit, to reveal its gender class. (Field methods, grammatical explanation, use of informants/consultants, Australian Aboriginal languages, Amazonian languages)

Despite a growing literature on the production and reproduction of linguistic inequality in mass media, we know little about how individuals experience such sociolinguistic marginalization. To fill this gap, this study examines a monolingual Taiwanese elderly woman’s experiences of television viewing. In the context of language shift in Taiwan after 40 years of Mandarin-only policy, language hierarchy persists despite the current policy of multilingualism. Although the subject does not understand the referential meaning of most shows because of language barriers, she recognizes socially indexical meanings about the ranking of languages and how she is positioned and excluded. The unequal participant structure in the dynamic interactions between two overlapping communicative events of television viewing and family discussions of the shows doubly marginalizes her. This study demonstrates how the choice of linguistic code in television programming conveys meaning and structures participation frameworks that engage minority monolingual individuals in dialogic processes of identity construction. (Sociolinguistic marginalization, participation framework, Bakhtin, identity, Taiwan, television)*

Modern bureaucratic institutions are notorious for producing documents that are difficult to understand. Much attention has been paid to the language of these materials; little is known about the contexts in which these documents are used and their potential effects on functional literacy. Drawing on research in a midwestern credit union, this paper discusses several factors that seem to characterize how and why credit unions and their members use credit union documents: the characteristics of document availability, the structure of interactions in which documents are used, attitudes and beliefs about the documents, and the functions of documents. (Literate practices, conversational analysis, bureaucratic institutions, politics of language, plain language movement).

Aspects of the precontact ontology of the Yurok Indians of northwestern California may be explored through analysis of lexical and semantic shifts that occur between two speech registers in Yurok: “ordinary” speech and an auxiliary. “high,” or esoteric, speech style. In the “high” register, use of which was the prerogative of a social and spiritual elite, a variety of mechanisms are implemented in altering “ordinary” lexation and in attributing different meanings to parts of the “ordinary” lexicon. These include circumlocution, antonymy, attribution, and, most significantly, the shifting of referential focus. Semantic shifts are systematic within specifiable lexical sets and implicitly comprise subtle ontological exegeses. (Ritual languages, speech registers, translation, world view, Native North America)

Secularization has played a significant role in the revival of Hebrew. Use of words and phrases from the religious domain in secular contexts, so natural to the native Israeli, may at times shock students who have studied Hebrew outside Israel, especially those trained in Jewish day schools. The growing secularization of Israeli life-style and the increasing influence of foreign languages, as manifested in the local media, indeed have given rise to new forms of language secularization. These have split modern Hebrew into two varieties: on the one hand, a language clinging to its historical roots, spoken and understood by observant Jews in Israel and studied abroad in religious day schools, and on the other hand, a secularized variety, separated from its ancient culture, adopted by many circles of Israeli Hebrew speakers. (Semantic change, language varieties, Hebrew)

In the contemporary speech community of Fort Chipewyan, Alberta, there is evidence that the four languages, Chipewyan, Cree, French, and English, have converged to a considerable extent. Although at first this convergence appears to have developed since Fang-Kuei Li's 1928 work on Chipewyan in the same community, an examination of other sources which have been considered unreliable shows this convergence to have been stable for as long as 100 years. The view of Chipewyan as a discrete, historical variety, unaffected by convergence, is then shown to have been a joint product of the interaction between the linguist, Li, and his informant, François Mandeville. (Linguistic convergence, linguistic change, fieldwork, ethnography of speaking, history of linguistics; Chipewyan (Athapaskan) of Fort Chipewyan, Alberta, Canada.)

Mijikenda social relationships are of two types, “respectful” and “joking.” In this northeastern Bantu language of Kenya, respect based on kinship requires an overt linguistic marker: adjacent generations (parents and children) “respect” one another and address each other using plural forms. Kin of the same generation (siblings, cousins) and of alternate generations (grandparents, grandchildren) “joke” with one another and address each other in the singular. Accordingly, address form in Mijikenda signals and reaffirms generational identity and relative position in a well-defined social structure. It is also normatively associated with “correct” behavior. As pronouns of respect occur in such small-scale, nonstratified Bantu societies (and throughout the world), it is suggested that Brown and Gilman's (1960) particular hypothesis for the origin and spread of T/V respect systems needs to be replaced by a more socially persuasive and general explanation for a widespread phenomenon. (Sociolinguistics, pronouns of address, T/V systems, kinship, Kenya languages, Bantu)

An experimental study of the role of tone of voice in Japanese conversations, using both Japanese and American subjects, has uncovered situational determinants of voice quality not related to emotion. Some of these variations are perceived differently by the two sets of subjects, some in the same way. The nature of the situational determinants casts new doubt on the plausibility of ‘language’ as a natural subset of human communications. (Tone of voice, non-linguistic communication, ethnography of communication, Japan.)

This article investigates a specific practice that recipients in Dutch talk-in-interaction use when responding to turns that have as one of their main jobs to inform. By responding to an informing turn with an oh-prefaced nonrepeating response that has yes/no-type interrogative word order, recipients treat that turn as counter to expectation and request both confirmation of the inference formulated in his/her response, as well as reconciliatory information for the two discrepant states of affairs. This practice is compared to similar cases where the nonrepeating response is not oh-prefaced to show that such turns implement different actions. Data are in Dutch with English translations. (Counterexpectations, change-of-state, yes/no-type interrogatives, action formation, practions)*

This article analyzes the multimodal integration of gesture, talk, and sociocultural context. More specifically, I investigate how forms of Gemeinschaft/Gesellshaft community are embodied in the concrete details of multimodal form—in the iconic interplay of multimodal practice and symbolic forms of social organization. Using a focus group interview of community policing training, I show how criss-crossing laminations of participation emerge through novel gestural configurations like multimodal quotation and pragmatic beats to not only pace the rhythm of speech but simultaneously plot the spatial coordinates of social organization. In the course of events, we see how speakers integrate gesture, gaze, and postural orientation into the stream of their utterances to project rhythmically infused meanings of communal identity, social solidarity, and cultural opposition. (Multimodality, community, legal discourse)*

This study suggests how easily distorted communication can arise in formal administrative discourse when the interests of those with some stake in the matter under discussion are not represented among the participants. After discussing the nature of power and its exercise in administrative settings, the article presents three episodes of discourse analysis. Members of a Board of Trustees were highly successful in debating and reaching suitable conclusions when the agenda items concerned their own close interests; they were able to create a discursive context that was relatively free of distorting ideologies, and which allowed participants to judge the sincerity, truth, justifiability, and meaningfulness of what was said. However, when the meeting agenda broached the affairs of an out-group with no known patronage on the Board, distortions in communication and small injustices became common; the out-group's interests were compromised. The article generalizes from the use of discursive power in this instance to the treatment of other culturally different minorities whose views and interests are not well represented among administrators and policy makers. It recommends how discursive power could be exercised more fairly in social institutions, and in public administration generally. (Discourse, power, minority groups, ideology, educational administration)

Theories of social capital hold that strong interpersonal relationships can be leveraged to facilitate information sharing, gain trust, and strengthen group solidarity. Thus, it is often predicted that international workers are disadvantaged in these areas because they lack established social ties. Using data from disagreements between American interns and their colleagues in Japanese companies, this study critically examines this prediction by illustrating some ways participants use socially constructed representations of intercultural ideologies in ways that facilitate similar outcomes and substitute for their lack of relational histories. Specifically, these representations temporarily reverse flows of information, resist restrictions stemming from perceived lack of trust, and create shared humor that helps redefine in-group boundaries. By using a formal social capital model to interpret these results, this study helps position socially constructed representations of interculturality within a broader theoretical account of the potentially many forms of symbolic ‘capital’ that enable action. (Social capital, interculturality, disagreements, workplace, social identity)*

Contrary to statements made by previous researchers, Muskogee women are linguistically active in ceremonial public spheres, though through the use of genres that differ significantly from men's. One of the genres performed in these contexts is “gossip,” which is described by some Muskogee men as a dangerous genre. This article explores why Muskogee women's and men's linguistic practices differ so strikingly in the ceremonial sphere, and what women achieve through their use of gossip. It is suggested that consideration of Muskogee language and gender ideologies in regard to these issues shows that gendered language use differences are rational and maintain balance between the genders. Insights from both ideologies also indicate that women's gossip is a powerful genre, the use of which is generally positive for Muskogee society.I would like to thank Linda Alexander, Bertha Tilkens, John Proctor, and other members of the Muskogee community who have allowed me to attend and be part of their interactions. I also would like to express my appreciation to the reviewers of this manuscript for their insightful comments.

A micro-discourse-based approach is employed to examine the usage of nonparticle questions (e.g., ii? ‘{Is that} okay?’) in Japanese university orchestra meetings. Women appear to ask such questions more often than men do there. It is shown that a detailed discourse analysis, including participants' talk, nonvocal behaviors, and the use of documents, can uncover how superficially sex-linked usage arises from differences in speakers' activities at the moment. By means of both sequential and quantitative analyses of 140 nonparticle questions, it is demonstrated that their use with different frequencies by women and men is not a direct consequence of the sex of the speaker per se. Rather, the speakers' engagement in activities specific to particular discourses (e.g., note-taking) affects their opportunities to ask nonparticle questions.I would like to express my appreciation to my former academic adviser, Amy Sheldon of the University of Minnesota, and to the other members of my dissertation committee, Junko Mori, Betsy Kerr, Jeanette Gundel, and Bruce Downing, for their invaluable comments on earlier versions of this article. I am also grateful to the editor of the journal and two anonymous reviewers of this article who helped me to refocus the argumentation. I also appreciate the help of Anthony Backhouse, Marjorie Harness Goodwin, Jane Hill, Noël R. Houck, Hiroaki Ishiguro, Etsuko Oishi, and Tomoharu Yanagimachi, who gave me useful and insightful suggestions. I also thank Anne-Marie Cusac and Jane McGary, who made many stylistic changes. I am solely responsible for any problems that remain in this article. An earlier version of this article was presented at the 2001 annual meeting of American Association for Applied Linguistics in St. Louis, Missouri. A related but different article concerning functions of nonparticle questions appeared as Okada 2005 in the Bulletin of Fuji Women's University 42 (Series I).