Language style is one of the most challenging aspects of sociolinguistic variation. The basic principle of language style is that an individual speaker does not always talk in the same way on all occasions. Style means that speakers have alternatives or choices — a ‘that way’ which could have been chosen instead of a ‘this way’. Speakers talk in different ways in different situations, and these different ways of speaking can carry different social meanings.

Language Style as Audience Design

View a collection of videos on Professor Wilson entitled "On the Relation of Science and the Humanities"In his new preface E. O. Wilson reflects on how he came to write this book: how "The Insect Societies" led him to write "Sociobiology," and how the political and religious uproar that engulfed that book persuaded him to write another book that would better explain the relevance of biology to the understanding of human behavior.

On Human Nature

MACWHINNEY, BRIAN. The Acquisition of Morphophonology. Monographs of the Societyfor Research in Child Development, 1978, 43(1-2, Serial No. 174). A model is presented which details the ways in which children in different language communities acquire the morphophonological structure of their languages. In this model, the processes of rote, combination, and analogy are integrated into a single processing goal stack. The model views learning as a cyclical process in which acquisition leads to application, application leads to correction, and correction leads to renewed acquisition. The processes of acquisition, application, and correction are formulated in relatively precise terms. The empirical aspects of the model are then summarized as a series of 16 claims. The validity of these 16 claims is evaluated in the light of experimental and diary data on the acquisition of Arabic, Chinese, English, Finnish, French, German, Hungarian, Latvian, Russian, and Spanish. Experiment 1 examines the acquisition of nine patterns in Hungarian morphophonology by children between 2 and 6 years of age. It indicates that the sequence of acquisition of morphophonological productions is determined chiefly by applicability as defined by the model. Experiment 2 indicates that preschoolers tend to avoid acquisition of synonymous inflections. Experiment 3 gives some evidence that Hungarian 5-year-olds can use information on allomorphic variations to determine the use of allomorph selection productions. Experiment 4 examines the learning of the German plural formation by children between the ages of 3 and 11. The order of acquisition of strategies in plural formation was determined by the interaction of applicability and correctness, as suggested by the model. Experiment 5 gives evidence for the ordering of rote, combination, and analogy as a goal stack in the formation of German gender. The concluding chapters review the success of the model in accounting for the available data on the acquisition of morphophonology. In general, the model constitutes an advance in our ability to account for the acquisition of complex linguistic structures in terms of specific cognitive processing. Every normal newborn is, in a sense, a subject in a vast experiment of nature. Each of these newborns brings to this experiment some set of abilities

The acquisition of morphophonology

Symbolic Convergence Theory: A Communication Formulation

Several rhetoricians have recently called for an increased interest in the “polysemy” of the text, but ironically, they are not all talking about the same thing. While they agree about how to delimit the term, there are conflicting assumptions about who initiates polysemy, the social action it supports, and the power dynamics it endorses. This paper argues that we should recognize resistive reading, strategic ambiguity, and hermeneutic depth as three types of polysemy that support different scholarly purposes. This paper also complicates assumptions about the critical judgment of polysemous texts and suggests that some types of polysemy are best identified through the adoption of a new critical approach.

Polysemy: Multiple Meanings in Rhetorical Criticism.

By drawing its structural pattern from the romantic quest mythoi and developing characterizations of supporters and opponents which reflect elements of Jung's mother archetype, the rhetorical vision of STOP ERA becomes especially potent and appealing to many American women. The impact of such mythical archetypes is both subtle and pervasive.

The “positive woman's” journey: A mythic analysis of the rhetoric of stop ERA

Examining the medical journal reports of the Tuskegee syphilis study, this essay explores the role that rhetoric played in the study's continuation. The essay argues that depicting patients as scen...

http://www.brown.uk.com/teaching/HEST5001/solomon.pdf

THE RHETORIC OF DEHUMANIZATION An Analysis of Medical Reports of the Tuskegee Syphilis Project

This case study of the rhetoric of Emma Goldman explores the relationship between ideology and rhetorical strategies. After tracing Goldman's use of argument by incongruity and embodiment, the essay explains why these strategies were ineffective for an American audience. Finally, the essay argues that these strategies are inherent in anarchist ideology and that, consequently, anarchism could not be rhetorically effective as a social movement within American society.

Ideology as rhetorical constraint: The anarchist agitation of “red Emma” Goldman

Despite its success and the publicity it has received, the STOP ERA movement, led by Phyllis Schlafly, has received little critical attention. This article examines: (1) the image which the group develops of its opponents; (2) the image it projects of its supporters; (3) the ideological framework indicated by these images; and, (4) the rhetorical implications of (1), (2), and (3). It concludes that, although the movement's ideology is implicitly fatalistic and manipulative, its reaffirmation of traditional perspectives and its appeal to the need for personal security make it extremely effective rhetorically.

The rhetoric of stop era: Fatalistic reaffirmation

The essay begins by challenging what Rowland sees as problems with mythic criticism in its present state. Attention then turns to a critique of several of the underlying features in Rowland's argument, and the essay ends with comments about Rowland's attitude toward critical practice in general.

Martha Solomon

Papers

The “positive woman's” journey: A mythic analysis of the rhetoric of stop ERA

THE RHETORIC OF DEHUMANIZATION An Analysis of Medical Reports of the Tuskegee Syphilis Project

Ideology as rhetorical constraint: The anarchist agitation of “red Emma” Goldman

The rhetoric of stop era: Fatalistic reaffirmation

Responding to Rowland's myth or in defense of pluralism—A reply to Rowland