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In this commentary, we discuss common pitfalls associated with the study of race and language, focusing specifically on the recent emergence of raciolinguistics as a frame for these efforts. We examine how raciolinguistics can be taken up in ways that silo discussions of race from the rest of linguistics—as something that the "raciolinguists" do—such that careful study of issues including colonialism, power, and societal hierarchies is perpetually pushed to the margins of the field. We also consider how the nominalization of raciolinguistics can suggest that race and language are agreed upon objects in ways that reproduce troublesome essentializations. We show how a raciolinguistic perspective can resist such tendencies by continually interrogating the colonial reproduction and transformation of modern knowledge projects and lifeways across societal contexts, as well as by continually examining the fundamental nature of language, race, and power. We end with what we see as the implications of a raciolinguistic perspective for all of linguistics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In this commentary on “Memory and Common Ground Processes in Language Use,” I draw attention to relevant work on mindreading. The concerns of research on common ground and mindreading have significant overlap, but these literatures have worked in relative isolation of each other. I attempt an assimilation, pointing out shared and distinctive concerns and mutually informative results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on a study of a teacher development project informed by systemic functional linguistics and its impact on student writing in math and science. The study was conducted with 41 teachers from urban and rural schools enrolled in the project at a university in the US. Data, in the form of survey, interview, instructional planning, classroom observation, and student writing at different stages of teacher development, were analyzed to show impact of the teacher development. The findings indicate that teachers need a functional linguistic perspective to improve their pedagogical practice for teaching writing. A functional approach to teacher development makes an impact on not only development of teachers' knowledge and skills but also students' writing performance in the areas of math and science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars working in different areas of literary studies have recently developed an interest in how literature deals with the 'deep', evolutionary history of humankind. Cross-fertilizing this line of enquiry with accounts of consciousness representation in cognitive narrative theory, my essay explores literary figurations of prehistoric mentalities and their interpretive ramifications. Through two case studies, Jack London's Before Adam (1906) and William Golding's The Inheritors (1955), I examine how fictional texts may convey the difference between modern-day cognition and the psychological life of our hominid ancestors. By investigating the narrative strategies employed by London (first-person narration, embedded narrative) and Golding (internal focalization), I advance hypotheses about how such devices may guide readers' engagements with the two novellas' protagonists and shape their interpretations. I argue that, while London renders the cognitive specificity of proto-humans in purely negative terms - that is, by subtracting capacities that we tend to associate with Homo sapiens - Golding stages a complex trade-off between archaic and modern mentalities. In different ways, both London's and Golding's novellas can prompt reflection on the cognitive evolution of the Homo genus, potentially involving readers in the challenges of thinking about evolutionary phenomena. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents findings from a gendered analysis of resident responses to the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires (wildfires) in Victoria, Australia. One hundred and seventy-three people lost their lives in the bushfires and more than 2000 houses were destroyed. Previous research on Black Saturday has largely focused on issues of resident preparedness and response, with limited consideration of the role of gender in household decisions and actions. This paper examines the gendered dimensions of risk awareness, preparedness and response among households affected by the bushfires. Data were collected through in-depth interviews with over 600 survivors and a questionnaire of 1314 households in fire-affected areas. Analysis revealed that women more often wanted to leave than men, who more often wanted to stay and defend property against the bushfires. Nevertheless, findings suggest that broad-brush characterisations of staying to defend as a masculine response and leaving as a feminine response are misguided. Although some women expressed a strong desire to leave, others were resolute on staying to defend. Equally, while some men were determined to stay and defend, others had never considered it an option. Despite this, the research identified numerous instances where disagreement had arisen as a result of differing intentions. Conflict most often stemmed from men's reluctance to leave, and was most apparent where households had not adequately planned or discussed their intended responses. The paper concludes by considering the degree to which the findings are consistent with other research on gender and bushfire, and the implications for bushfire safety policy and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examined how social cues (the conversational partner's viewpoint) and representational ones (the intrinsic structure of a spatial layout) jointly shape people's spatial memory representations and their subsequent descriptions. In 24 pairs, Directors studied an array with a symmetrical structure while either knowing their Matcher's subsequent viewpoint or not. During the subsequent description of the array, the array's intrinsic structure was aligned with the Director, the Matcher, or neither partner. According to memory tests preceding descriptions, Directors who had studied the array while aligned with its structure were more likely to use its orientation as an organizing direction. Directors who had studied the array while misaligned with its structure used its orientation more frequently as an organizing orientation when knowing that the Matcher would be aligned with it, but used their own viewpoint more frequently as an organizing direction when not knowing the Matcher's viewpoint. Directors also adapted their descriptions strategically, using more egocentric expressions when aligned with the intrinsic structure and more partner-centered expressions when their Matchers were the ones aligned with the structure, even when this information wasn't available in advance. These findings suggest that speakers are guided by converging social and representational cues to adapt flexibly the organization of their memories and the perspectives of their descriptions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some self-ascriptions of belief, desire and other attitudes exhibit first-person authority. The aim here is to offer a novel account of this kind of first-person authority. The account is a development of Robert Gordon's ascent routine theory but is framed in terms of our ability to bring it about that others know of our attitudes via speech acts which do not deploy attitudinal vocabulary but which nonetheless 'show' our attitudes to others. Unlike Gordon's ascent routine theory, the theory readily applies to attitudes other than belief, avoids a need to appeal to processes of making up one's mind, and does not rest upon a distinction between 'outward looking' and 'inward looking' processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An essay is presented on the few passages from the "Theaetetus," in which speaking on behalf of someone plays a crucial role. It says that the aim in retracting the relation between the notion of indirect speech and dialogue is to address the implication of speaking on behalf of the other for any dialogical relation. Hans-Georg Gadamer notes that each dialogical partner stresses his or her opinions and point of view to win an argument. Moreover, the question on knowledge is discussed.

The article discusses the instruction of critical thinking in literacy education, focusing on the ways in which readers engage with, and respond to, texts' assumptions and stereotypes. The authors discuss a study which experimented with different interpretive reading stances and the ways in which they impacted the critical reading abilities of U.S. eighth grade students. Topics include an inquiry educational program that fostered collaborative problem solving and critical perspectives, and the use of the books "The House That Crack Built," by C. Taylor, and "Nettie's Trip South," by A. Turner, in the curriculum.

Franz Innerhofer's first novel, Schöne Tage, is often held up as an archetype of the Austrian anti-Heimat novel, whose critical revision of the provincial idyll is believed to have contributed to the linguistic and social emancipation of Austria's rural underclass. Employing a comparative narratological approach, which combines insights from literary and film studies, this article addresses the issue of narrative perspective in Innerhofer's novel. The view 'von unten', celebrated as a sign of rural literature's liberation from patriarchal power, is exposed as a problematic peg on which to hang provincial equality. Whilst narrative perspectives may have changed, the language in which they find expression remains firmly in the service of existing power structures, subjugating rather than enfranchising the rural subject. This article examines the connection between perspectival, narrative and identificatory structures and questions the basis of the reader's identification with the text's protagonists in the face of an unidentified, omniscient narrator wielding ultimate narrative power. In locating the basis of the reader's identifications in problematic linguistic power structures, this article demands a re-evaluation of the impulse in literary history to accord a positive performative function to anti-Heimat literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Causal inference methods - mainly path analysis and structural equation modeling - offer plant physiologists information about cause-and-effect relationships among plant traits. Recently, an unusual approach to causal inference through stepwise variable selection has been proposed and used in various works on plant physiology. The approach should not be considered correct from a biological point of view. Here, it is explained why stepwise variable selection should not be used for causal inference, and shown what strange conclusions can be drawn based upon the former analysis when one aims to interpret cause-and-effect relationships among plant traits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Everyone knows what attention is. It is the taking possession by the mind, in clear and vivid form, of one out of what seem several simultaneously possible objects or trains of thought. Focalization, concentration, of consciousness are of its essence. It implies withdrawal from some things in order to deal effectively with others. William James Principles of Psychology [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ability to argue is an important academic goal in secondary education. This paper reports on an exploratory study which investigated how asynchronous text-based conferencing provides a new site for school students to rehearse and develop their skills in argumentation. The study used linguistic tools of analysis to investigate two key questions: • How is argumentation structured in asynchronous text-based conferencing? • How do students use language to negotiate their position on an issue? The originality of our study lies in the use of a functional linguistic method of analysis which provides unique insights into how students use language to argue, insights that can inform teaching and learning both in school history (the context for this paper) and more generally. Our interest in language is based on the premise that it is central to the learning process – a premise supported by work in socio-cultural psychology and systemic functional linguistics. The most significant findings to emerge from the analysis were that (1) counter-argumentation was rare; and (2b) the more tentatively a claim is phrased the more likely it is that students will challenge or counter it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses various reports published within the issue, including one on the themes characteristic of the humanistic perspective and another on the evolutionary nature of humanism and humanistic counseling.

The relation between theory of mind and affective perspective taking was examined in a study with 42 three- to five-year-olds. Children completed tasks measuring affective perspective taking, theory of mind, and receptive language abilities. Significant positive correlations existed between overall affective perspective taking and theory of mind performance, independent of age and language. The relation between theory of mind and affective perspective taking was strongest for those scenarios in which there was a conflict between the child and the friend's emotional responses. These findings indicate that the abilities to understand conflicting emotions and to understand false beliefs are related aspects of social development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to show connections between Wittgenstein's approach to philosophy and the writings on religion of two authors whom we know Wittgenstein read and admired: William James and Leo Tolstoy. Wittgenstein stresses certain attitudes toward philosophical ‘problems’ which resemble the attitudes that James and Tolstoy connect with religious faith. There are also similarities of phrases and expressions. It is not possible to say that these writers influenced the way Wittgenstein regarded philosophy, but it suggests that he recognized the similarities between their approaches and his despite the differences in subject. Consequently it helps to clarify why he would speak of his approach to problems as being from ‘a religious point of view’ even though its orientation is not specifically religious. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This chapter attempts to reconstruct the cognitive correlates historical progress, using as examples the emergence of invariant numbers in Mesopotamia, the growth of logic and perspectivism in the early Middle Ages, and the rise of public education in the nineteenth century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reviews the book "Apostolic and Prophetic: Ecclesiological Perspectives," by Gesa Elsbeth Thiessen and James Clark.