Revista de Estudos da Linguagem

23-36

Authors: Vera Lúcia Menezes de Oliveira Paiva

Th1s paper discusses some research resulta on sex differences ln the speech of homeless adolescents ln Belo Horizonte. The study showed that male speakers use more standard forms than female speakers, although the inicial hypothesis predicted that groups with a great many characteristics ln common would present little d1fferences concerning prestige forms.

53-61

Authors: Maria Cecília Mollica

This paper demonstratel! emplrical evldences for a functional hypothesls about the language prosodic leveI. Modem Brazilian Portuguese data shaw that the noun phrases, wh1ch have a certaln supra-segmental feature, are llnlts ln discourse. Pragmatic motivations are aIso discussed, spec1a1ly the lnteractional polnt of view.

79-85

Authors: Carlos Alberto Gohn

This study aims at revisiting some of the author's experiences whenfaced with an unknawn alphabet in India. Somellterature on learning how to read/write is shortly examined so as to she4 some llght on peculiarities ofthe process.

99-113

Authors: Sirio Possenti

Morphologicaly-triggered humor is seen by somestudies as if itwas the result of free manipulations of certainlinguistic expressions.Hawever, it ispossible to show that they deal with a Iinguisticactivity governed by a very rigorousprincipIe, the equivalentof a morevulgar version of the Sassure'stheory of sign,the one that does not take into account his theory of value.Thepresent work analjyses a set of dataand seeks to demonstratethat this linguistic activity, which could "onIy be seenas ludic'reveals a particular way of functioningof language, based onapeculiar theory of literal meaning, inspite of contrary expectations.The central claim. is that, if this peculiar theoryof meamng isvalidfor every linguistic manifestation, language could notbe consideredstructure (this isa good anti-structuralist argument, by the way),but "nomenclatures", that is, lists of words.The result of thiswork adds to all those which make up the assumption thatlanguagesarebetter analysed when viewed from various standpoints.