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This thesis addressed two key issues. The first was the extent to which verbal short-term memory (STM) for item and order information can be differentiated in terms of their underlying neural mechanisms. The second was to analyze the relative contributions of item and order STM to vocabulary learning in bilingual (BL) and monolingual (ML) children and ML adults. The first issue was addressed with four studies. Three used electroencephalography (EEG) with ML adults, BL adults and ML children. The aim was to determine whether there is any evidence that the two types of verbal STM have different neural signatures. The fourth study used transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) in ML adults to test the hypothesis that the right intraparietal sulcus (IPS) is involved in order STM but not item STM. The second issue was addressed by two behavioural studies. The first was a large-scale longitudinal study testing item and order STM in relation to natural vocabulary acquisition in 7 to 10 year old BL and ML children. The children were tested once in the beginning and once in the end of the school year. In addition, ML children learning a second language were examined in the end of the school year. The second behavioural study explored therelationship of item and order STM with new-word-learning in ML adults using artificially-created nonwords. Some evidence was found to support the view that the distinction of item and order STM is a useful one. Results of the EEG data suggested differences in patterns of neuro-electrical activity for ML and BL adults and ML children when they are performing item STM and order STM tasks. The results suggest that order STM is important for new word learning in one´s native language learning, where there has already been some exposure to this language, but not in complete novice language learners.

This thesis reports on the longitudinal study of consonant production in fifteen typically-developing monolingual children living in the south-east of England acquiring non-rhotic accents of British English. The data relate to the consonant patterns found in spontaneous speech production as recorded in individual diaries kept by caregivers. The study follows two lines of enquiry. Firstly, the speech data are analysed to chart the emergence of English consonants in relation to phonemic targets. Separate analysis of the production of initial and final singletons and cluster consonants is undertaken. This reveals word-position asymmetries in the production of consonants and consonant classes, and identifies the classes and the contexts in which consonants are most avoided. Secondly, the speech data are analysed further for evidence of word-position bias in the use of the simplification processes identified in O'Neal (1998) as features of two discrete phonological profiles. Children who demonstrate tendencies towards either of these profiles in their patterns of consonant deletion, fronting, stopping and reduplication are identified, and their profiles compared and contrasted with those of other monolingual English-learning children.

This thesis investigates the idea that the grammatical system of a language influences aspects of thought patterns and communicative behaviour. It examines the linguistic conceptualisation of motion events in English and Tunisian Arabic (TA) in order to contribute to current debates in Second Language Acquisition (SLA) research and its associated field of Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL). The main research questions are whether in learning a typologically different language, the conceptualisation acquired through first languages (L1) interferes with the learning of the conceptualisation inherent in a second language (L2). In order to address these questions, I adopt three analytical frameworks: a grammatical framework based on Talmy's (1985, 2000) binary distinction between verb-framed and satellite-framed languages, a discourse framework based on Berman and Slobin's (1994) application of Talmy's typology to verbal behaviour; and a ‘Whorfian' framework based on Slobin's (1987, 1996b) Thinking-for-Speaking' (TfS) hypothesis. A fundamental claim of the TfS hypothesis is that the grammar of a language and the discourse preferences of its speakers play a fundamental role in shaping linguistic thinking. From this follows the prediction that L1-based conceptualisation resists change when a typologically different L2 is learnt in adulthood. A comparison of the TfS behaviours of speakers of L1-English (L1-Eng), L1-TA, and ‘advanced' L2-English (L2-Eng) whose L1 is TA support this prediction. Based on the notion of ‘motionisation' – a term I coin in order to describe a conceptual strategy L1 speakers of English use when TfS about events – I show that linguistic habits are not only decisive in how the same TfS content is expressed (e.g. run from the jar versus run out of the jar), but more importantly, it is decisive in situations where speakers are ‘forced' to pick out different aspects of the same reality for TfS purposes. The findings reported here have implications for L2 English learners, in general, and, in particular, for learners of English whose L1 may be characterised as a verb-framed language.

This thesis has two goals. The first is to explain, within a pragmatic perspective, how figurative language (i.e. metaphor and irony) performs argumentation. Based on the argumentation theory (AT) of Perelman and Olbrecht-Tyteca (1958), argumentation is defined as the process of justifying something in an organized or logical way, which is composed of one or more claims and shows one or more grounds for maintaining them. The second goal is to examine the hearer's interpretation of figurative utterances in argumentation. The theoretical foundation of this discussion is based on experientialist epistemology (i.e. experientialism) and cognitive pragmatics in the form of Relevance Theory (RT). In pursuit of those goals, I present four main innovations: First, I argue the status of metaphor should be viewed as ‘what is implicated', rather than ‘what is said'. Second, I propose explanation of some exceptional cases of irony, which the standard RT approach does not treat, which relies on the notion of ‘incongruity'. Third, I propose integration of AT concepts within RT. Thus, this approach contributes to pursuing more economical explanation of communication as argumentation, by a single principle of relevance, but incorporating argumentative concepts such as doxa, topoi and polyphony. Finally, I apply this integrated approach to analysing real cases of commercial advertisement by metaphor or irony, or both. This includes explaining connection and overlapping, two ways in which metaphor and irony can work together.

This thesis investigates the linguistic situation of the Greek-Cypriot community of Cyprus and the language attitudes and perception of ethnic identity of Greek-Cypriot students aged between 12 and 18 years old, an under-researched age group. The research examines the assumption that the linguistic situation of Cyprus is diglossic. The attitudes of Greek-Cypriot students towards Standard Modern Greek, the official language of Cyprus, and the Greek-Cypriot dialect, the native variety, are analysed through qualitative and quantitative methods. The study uses a mixed methods approach and data are collected by means of classroom observations, interviews, questionnaires and an experiment similar to the matched guise technique. A social constructionist approach is used for the analysis of ethnic identity construction. The results of this research indicate that Cyprus is experiencing a different kind of diglossia than Ferguson's (1996a) original description of diglossia. The ‘contextual diglossia' proposed in this study suggests that the functional distribution of the high and low varieties is based both on the speaker's judgements of appropriateness (speaker's context) and on the context of communication (local context). The study also reveals that students generally have favourable attitudes towards Standard Modern Greek and display both favourable and negative attitudes towards the Greek-Cypriot dialect. These attitudes are explained through the presence of stereotypes attached to each variety and the political ideologies in Cyprus. Students embrace all three ethnic identities, Cypriot, Greek and Greek-Cypriot, although their Cypriot and Greek-Cypriot identities emerge as strongest. They construct their identities through the use of pronouns and nationalistic expressions. The language attitudes and ethnic identities of Greek-Cypriots are formed and constructed against the backdrop of the socio-political and historical context of Cyprus and are shaped by the existence of diglossia and language ideologies.

A rhetorical theory of folklore was used to interpret how summer camp staffers use a folk drama as a means of identification and as a type of artistic expression. The performance was analyzed for ethnographic information using Kenneth Burke's theory of dramatism and for artistic techniques using Burke's theory of the psychology of audience. The dramatistic pentad contextualized the performance, and this information was analyzed for motives through the delineation of dramatistic ratios. The skit's syntagmatic structure was outlined using Burke's description of five aspects of form. The analysis demonstrates that meaning is emergent through both the content and form of the symbolic action of the folk drama. Identification is achieved primarily through the presentation of motives. The aesthetic experience is created primarily through the use of form. The interpretation demonstrates that the skit's content and form can not be understood apart from each other and that understanding content and form is but one aspect of the performance's meaning.

Taped interviews, fox hunting magazines, and a questionnaire were primary sources for collecting approximately 290 of the specialized terms employed by pedestrian fox hunters known as "hilltoppers." Once the terms were collected, they were co,pared with the terms related to formal fox hunting. The comparison revealed that hilltopper jargon and formal fox hunting jargon contain many identical terms, yet the former body of terms is significantly larger and more varied. In order to determine whether or not the jargon of hilltopping qualifies as an aspect of folk speech, methods of dissemination, patterns of innovation, speaker response to social and technological change, geographical variance, and the perpetuation of archaic terminology were taken into account. The mapping of regional patterns of distribution could not be accomplished within the confines of this study, although tems do vary geographically. The study resulted in ascertaining that the jargon of hilltopping does qualify as an aspect of folk speech, and in the recording of many terms and phrases never before organised in glossary form.

To date, the auction as a type of folklore performance has not been adequately researched. In order to place auctions in perspective as folklore, chapter one of this thesis reviews the history of auctions in the United States. Chapter one further presents the idea of the auctioneer as a folk occupational specialist. The second chapter is concerned with the skills of an active Kentucky auctioneer, who offers, during a series of interviews, insights concerning his performance skills. The third, and final, chapter attempts to construct a theoretical base for researching auctions as folklore performance. The criteria by which any given performance is called folklore are applied to the study of auctions. This thesis concludes with the writer's firm belief that a variety of techniques and scholarly orientations can be applied to the study of auctions.

The purpose of this dissertation was ta determine the usefulness of the linguistic processes of Distortion, Deletion, Generalization, and Semantic Ill-Formedness as constructs which differentiate the verbal communication in families who express dissatisfaction with their current intrafamilial relationships from the verbal communication in families expressing satisfaction with their current relationships. These linguistic constructs provide an intermediate link between abstract theoretical assumptions and concrete findings which abound in the field of family interaction research. Specifically, it was hypothesized that dissatisfied families would use these linguistic structures to a greater extent in their interaction than would satisfied families. Thirty-one family triads, consisting of father; mother, and child were obtained by asking families randomly selected from the local high school student directory to participate. The families were given a Revealed Differences questionnaire and a questionnaire eliciting information regarding their satisfaction with their intrafamilial relationships. The families we~e instructed to reach agreement on items of the Revealed Differences questionnaire which they had disagreed on and the discussion was tape recorded. The discussions were transcribed and each of 150 Surface Structures (a complete thought, usually a grammatical sentence) per family was scored for 11 subcategories of Distortion, Deletion, Generalization, and Semantic Ill-Formedness. Interrater reliabilities ranged from .86 to .98. A mean was computed for the questionnaire pertaining to satisfaction with family relationships. Six families who scored at least one half standard deviation below the mean comprised the "dissatisfied" family group, and six families who scored at least one half standard deviation above the mean comprised the "satisfied" family group. It was found that the dissatisfied families used significantly more Deletion (p The linguistic process of Deletion is theorized to result in impoverishing the speaker's model of the world and the behavioral choices available to the speaker. Similarly, the listener{s) who must respond to the impoverished model is limited in his response and behavioral options. Since all members of the dissatisfied families used this form of language, they perpetuate the impoverishing model of the world and the limitations on their behavior. It was concluded that, while not establishing an etiologic link between the use of Deletion and family dissatisfaction, Deletion is part of the current verbal interaction of families who express dissatisfaction. Further research involving families in which a member is symptomatic is warranted based on the findings of this study. Language may provide at least one form of explanation regarding the process by which families maintain homeostasis in the face of symptom development. The use of linguistic concepts shows promise as an intermediate link in family interaction theory as well as a form of intervention available to therapists.