The role of the connective and is here considered as a preface to questions in spoken interaction. Using data from informal medical encounters, it is argued that and-prefacing is used to link a question to a preceding question/answer pair or pairs. In such contexts, and-prefacing indicates that the questions it prefaces have a routine or agenda-based character. This in turn can be a resource which invokes and sustains an orientation to an activity or course of action that is implemented through a series of question/answer pairs, but transcends any individual pair. The general characteristics of and-prefaced questions are contrasted with “contingent” or “follow-up” questions, which are not normally and-prefaced. Some strategic uses of and-prefaced questions are described, and the role of the device within the more general sociolinguistic context of the data is discussed. (Connectives, conversation analysis, discourse, institutional interaction, medical encounters, turn design)

Assessments of the narrative abilities of patients suffering from Alzheimer's disease should consider the interactions that generate the narratives. By analyzing the discourse of an AD patient in interaction with two different interlocutors, namely her husband and the author, this study calls attention to ways in which one interaction facilitates narratives and the other does not. Previous psycholinguistic research, largely focusing on the resultant narrative, has understood the AD patient's deteriorating narrative skills as a result of the progressively debilitating nature of the disease. This is undoubtedly true, but extensive and meaningful talk is nevertheless possible, partially grounded in and constructed through social interaction. (Discourse analysis, Alzheimer's disease, narrative social interaction)

In arguing for the necessity of gender-based language reform, feminist theorists have generally assumed that language is not a neutral and transparent means of representing reality. Rather, language is assumed to codify an androcentric worldview. While sexist language clearly reflects sexist social practices, the continuing existence of such practices throws into question the possibility of successful language reform. Because linguistic meanings are, to a large extent, socially constructed and constituted, terms initially introduced to be nonsexist and neutral may lose their neutrality in the mouths of a sexist speech community and/or culture. In this article we first examine the way in which nonsexist innovations have been appropriated by a sexist speech community. More specifically, we examine uses of neutral generics such as chairperson, spokesperson; singular they; he or she; and neutral titles such as Ms.; and we demonstrate that these terms are often not used nor interpreted in their intended (neutral) way. Rather, they are used in ways that maintain sexist stereotypes and distinctions. Then we examine the use of feminist linguistic innovations as they appear in the print media. We demonstrate the extent to which such terms get redefined and depoliticized by a speech community that is not predominantly feminist and is often sexist. (Language and gender, language and race, nonsexist language, gender-based language reform, neutral generics, discourse analysis)

The Budget is a newspaper which has served Amish communities for over a hundred years by disseminating community news to Amish settlements across North America. The main feature of this newspaper are newsletters written by volunteers from local Amish settlements, called “scribes,” who report news and happenings from their church districts. In this study the generic characteristics of the newsletters are identified, as is their role in the reproduction of Amish cultural values. The newsletters display generic consistency demonstrated in the predictable location, form, and content of the components of the newsletter. Scribes' reports of community news report events which are central to maintaining the importance of the interpersonal basis of Amish community life, and serve to maintain those items as reportable and noteworthy topics in the Amish communicative economy. (Amish, genre, written communication)