A Linguistic Description and Computer Program for Children's Speech. Primary Socialization, Language and Education Series, Number II.

The present monograph is second in a series of reports on research work edited by Basil Bernstein of the University of London. The research, carried out by the Sociological Research Unit of the University of London Institute of Education, is concerned with the inter-relationship between culture, social organization and orientations towards certain uses of language. This monograph presents a framework for the linguistic analysis of speech and a computer program to process the results of this analysis. The model of description for the linguistic analysis is that known as "scale and category" grammar, which enables the investigator to vary, according to his particular interests, the amount of detail he enters into at various points in the description. The authors have made use of this facility and discuss the special interests, sociological and psychological, that influenced their choice of detail. It is suggested that this work will be of interest to linguists, sociologists, social psychologists, educationalists, and those concerned with analyzing speech texts or behavior on a scale large enough to need computer assistance. (AMM)