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The linguistic intergroup bias is a phenomenon where people use more abstract language to talk positively about in-groups and negatively about out-groups (Maass, Salvi, Arcuri, & Semin, 1989). This has been established for many in-groups, but has not been extended to age-related stereotypes. This study extended the linguistic intergroup bias to attitudes towards older adults. It was predicted that statements about what participants liked about their peers and disliked about older adults would be more abstract than statements about what participants disliked about their peers and liked about older adults. Results supported these predictions. Also, a new measure of linguistic abstractness was tested, but was found not to be useful in this context. / Department of Psychological Science

The analysis of advertising English reveals the function of language in the communicative process and shows how language can be used as a means of manipulation. Only an explicit formulation of how the advertiser uses language, and a reflection about its effect, can protect the individual from being manipulated through language and make him less susceptible to the appeals that advertising has.It is the purpose of this paper to analyse a selected group of advertisements from magazines published currently in the United States in order to determine how language and other persuasive devices operate in those dimensions of advertisements which are set up by the model of communication. While in the first three chapters advertising in general is stressed with respect to linguistic and non-linguistic means, the fourth chapter on the aesthetic function describes explicitly the morphological and syntactical levels of the linguistic means involved. A purely morphological and syntactical analysis is not possible, as there is no clear-cut distinction between these levels and the semantic dimension.

Set against the changing historical context of consultancy services to Victorian teachers since 1872, this study examines the role of a curriculum consultant working with primary teachers in two different consultancy situations. The role of the consultant is construed as that of a dialogue partner with teachers, and specific attention is paid to the consultancy dialogue to analyse how the consultant’s language choices contributed to the construction of interpersonal relations with teachers. Consultancy literature gives a primary place to the establishment of mutual trust and respect with teachers and offers a number of processes that consultants might adopt to achieve this goal. However, it appears that no linguistic analysis has been undertaken of the consultancy discourse that provides any detailed picture of how the language behaviour of the consultant is implicated in this important process. The resources of systemic functional linguistic and appraisal theories are used by the consultant-researcher to analyse the texts. The linguistic data suggest that relationships with teachers are built around two elements: camaraderie and solidarity. Camaraderie accounts for the prevailing positive dispositions that underlie the relations between people, like teachers, who share the same profession. Solidarity has to be constructed anew in each consultation through the sharing of the consultant’s appraisals that indicate to teachers the mindset, the nature and intensity of the consultant’s point of view concerning the issues under consideration.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Wollongong, 2001. / Typescript. Bibliographical references: leaf 301-309.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--UCLA, 2005. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 339-351) and indexes.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2005. / Supervisors: Keith Walters and Qing Zhang. Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A.)--Indiana University, 2007. / Title from screen (viewed on July 20, 2007) Department of English, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 63-66)

Chinese-English code switching (CS thereafter) has become a common phenomenon in mainland China in the last decades of years. Most research focuses on sociolinguistic perspectives of CS in mainland China. However, there is rarely research aiming at exploring linguistic patterns of CS. To fill the research gap, this study attempts to perceive into the linguistic patterns of Chinese-English CS. Myers-Scotton' s Matrix Language Frame model (MLF model thereafter) is used as a framework in this study. On one hand, it can help me to classify data and explain why the data comes into being. One the other hand, CS between two typologically different languages can test the universality of the MLF model. Two hundred and seven Chinese-English bilingual utterances are quantitatively classified and qualitatively described as the basis of the analysis of this study. In this study, a whole picture of linguistic patterns of Chinese-English CS was presented. I further analyze some counterexamples against the MLF model, such as creative forms, which conform to neither the grammar of Chinese nor that of English. Thus, it is revealed that the MLF model cannot offer explanations to those innovative forms. I argue that the innovative forms in the corpus of this study belong to artistic CS. Artistic code­switching utterances mainly exist as lyrics or buzzwords on the Internet, which are intentionally created by people. These forms are invented to be different and attract people,s attention, so usually they do not conform to grammars and common language codes. No wonder that the MLF model cannot explin the artistic CS. Other limitations of the MLF model are also discussed in this dissertation.