The nonuse of available slang terms for cash among British bank and building society cashiers is noted and an explanation sought in the field of social control. The possible relevance of the Whorfian hypothesis is explored, and it is suggested that the in-house terms discussed have social and psychological functions in addition to the representational. (Financial terminology, social control, language functions, Whorfian hypothesis).

Modern bureaucratic institutions are notorious for producing documents that are difficult to understand. Much attention has been paid to the language of these materials; little is known about the contexts in which these documents are used and their potential effects on functional literacy. Drawing on research in a midwestern credit union, this paper discusses several factors that seem to characterize how and why credit unions and their members use credit union documents: the characteristics of document availability, the structure of interactions in which documents are used, attitudes and beliefs about the documents, and the functions of documents. (Literate practices, conversational analysis, bureaucratic institutions, politics of language, plain language movement).

The characteristics of the language of legislation are derived from its role in the institution of law. An analysis of the institutional context reveals links among history, social function, participant roles, accepted goals of legislation, and language use. The nature of an Act of Parliament as a perpetual speech act creates a frozen authoritative text so that the language itself becomes a component of the law. If legislation is to be both stable and flexible, institutional communicative strategies are required to organise linguistic means to these sociolinguistic ends. (Law, legislation, register, speech acts, communicative competence, communicative strategies)

Berbice Dutch is one of two recently rediscovered Dutch-based Creole languages spoken in Guyana. It is spoken in the county of Berbice, which corresponds to the former Dutch colony of Berbice, founded in the early seventeenth century.

This language possesses certain features that make it unique in comparison to other European language-based Creoles spoken in the Atlantic region. Because of these unique features, it represents a promising test case for the presence of substrate influence, and as such, is of obvious relevance for the present creolist debate between substratists and universalists.

The article discusses four different conceivable hypotheses to explain the origin of Berbice Dutch. The first of these assumes that a mixed Dutch–Kalaịarḅ trading jargon was developed in Africa as a result of the operations of the slave traders, and that this formed the basis of Berbice Dutch.

The second hypothesis depends critically on the ethnic homogeneity of the slaves. This hypothesis would assume that the planters/overseers in Berbice attempted to learn those aspects of Eastern Ịjọ that could be utilized on the plantations.

The third hypothesis assumes that Berbice Dutch is genetically descended from Eastern Ịjọ, but that this is not obvious due to large-scale relexification.

The fourth hypothesis assumes that Eastern Ịjọ was replaced by Berbice Dutch under the catalysing influence of (creole) Dutch, rather as the fully inflected Romani language was replaced in England by the creolized Anglo-romani under the catalysing influence of English.

The hypothesis that is selected as probably the best is the fourth, where it is argued that Berbice Dutch was adopted as the language of the Berbice slaves because it offered a means of expressing the identity of a newly created “ethnic” group.

The most important moral that can be drawn from this article is that the development of each Creole must be examined individually. Only after such an examination has taken place for a significant number of Creoles will it be possible to define what is meant by creolization. In addition to the detailed linguistic examination required, it will also be necessary to carry out detailed (socio)historical work demonstrating if possible that the linguistic sequence of events is supported by the available historical data. (Creole language, substrate, Ịjọ language, ethnicity, mixed language)

Philippine Creole Spanish, formed in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, underwent partial decreolization toward the end of the Spanish presence in the Philippines, particularly in the city of Zamboanga. Following the American occupation of the Philippines, virtually all Spanish linguistic influence has disappeared, but contemporary Zamboangueño continues to exhibit continuing incorporation of elements of standard Spanish, in the nearly total absence of a pool of Spanish speakers. The present study explores the status of the Zamboangueño dialect, discusses the various stages of decreolization in the direction of Spanish, and suggests possible avenues for the continued introduction of elements from an acrolect which, for all intents and purposes, is no longer generally available to residents of Zamboanga. (Creole studies, contact vernaculars)

Einar Haugen's review of Scandinavian language contacts, P. Sture Ureland and Iain Clarkson (eds.) (vol. 15, no. 1, March 1986), should read as follows from page 119, line 16:

On the other hand, he has overlooked items that I did question, for example, how många ‘how many’, as du forstår ‘as you understand’, di småla liven ‘the small lives’, pregnant. He also neglects my reference to Walter Johnson's word list of Chisago Swedish (1942) as well as my examination of the Andrew Peterson diary, in which I found only one of the controversial Moberg examples. But his gravest oversight is of Walter Johnson's definitive article of 1971, “The recording of American Swedish,” in which this son of the Chisago Lake community speaks out and calls Moberg's mixed language “disconcerting.” We may grant that what I have called the “communicative norm” has a wide variation in situations of semi-speakers engaged in “language suicide,” without granting that bilingual immigrants are utterly unsystematic in their usage, as Ureland seems to say.

The volume under review thus offers us a smörgasbord of situations in which Scandinavian languages have been involved, …

The title of the Broch and Jahr reference should be Russenorsk - et pidginspråk i Norge.

Alan Rumsey's review of Talk never dies: The language of Huli disputes, Laurence Goldman (vol. 15, no. 2, June 1986), should be corrected as follows:

p. 250, first sentence should read: “By comparison to the amount of anthropological literature on other aspects of Highland New Guinea social life, surprisingly little has been published on talk, even within analyses of disputes.”

p. 253, line 14 should read: “… related minimal pairs such as lāro ”I am saying' versus láro ‘I am causing to be/happen’; …”

p. 254, first sentence should read: “By contrast to the nondirective quality of a mediator's speech when he has the floor, competition for the floor is fierce and peremptory.”