This paper places recent work on politeness and facework into a broader framework concerned with the analysis of multiple goals in courtroom discourse. Problems with Brown & Levinson's (1978) theory as applied to ongoing discourse are addressed. A schema is developed that can be used to interpret major strategic options available for the conducting of facework. A methodology for employing this interpretative approach is described and illustrated with case studies of courtroom discourse. Preliminary analyses provide support for the approach: it is applicable to ongoing discourse and has a coherent internal logic. Directions for future research are indicated.

Functional and referential changes in maternal speech were investigated in a developmental study of nineteen mother-infant dyads, using videorecordings of their free play at three and six months. The role of the infant in influencing speech adjustments was investigated by analysing the relationships between different types of maternal speech and different infant behavioural modes. Three general modes were differentiated -Communicative, Praxic and Other -and, regardless of infant age, mothers were found to make some modifications to their speech style as a function of infant mode. Speech style also was found to change, at a pragmatic level, from three to six months. Both findings support the conclusion that maternal speech is influenced by non-linguistic behavioural 'feedback' from infants. However, a finding that affect-oriented speech is more sensitive to infant behaviour than informative speech supports Brown's (1977) contention that the maternal speech register is shaped by two relatively independent interpersonal functions -the affective and communicative components. It is argued that a fuller account of maternal conversational adjustments to prelingual infants requires both a dialogic and a monologic explanation.

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This article is concerned with the question of what we might take to be good communication theory and good communication practice within a new paradigm. The metatheoretical assumptions of this new paradigm are used to show that the setting aside of truth in favor of morality is one of its radical distinguishing features. It is then argued that the practical moral basis for evaluating communication needs to reside in how the process affects our human experience and what it affords us in the choices we have available and the opportunities for action. Four criteria are generated out of an understanding of communication in this new paradigm: constitutiveness, contextualness, diversity, and incompleteness. The article focuses on how these criteria might be used to make judgments about good and bad communication theory and practice.

The extent to which mothers and their infants can synchronize their activity levels and cycles of engagement and disengagement has been seen as fundamental to healthy affective development in the infant. Ten mothers and their infants were studied to consider the possibility of a neurophysiological base to synchronization potential. The infants' neurophysiological capacities were examined within two to three days of birth using the Brazelton Neonatal Behavioural Assessment Scale. The same infants and their mothers were assessed in their interactions after three months. The mothers' physiological responses to stimulation also were examined. Significant correlations were found between neonatal responsivity to stimuli and motor maturity, maternal stimulus screening capacity and the nature of the mother-infant interaction at three months. In particular, infants who were more socially responsive and attentive to stimuli had mothers with a greater capacity for 'screening out' redundant stimuli. Moreover, these same dyads spent more time in social engagement and had fewer cycles of disengagement. These findings, together with other studies, suggest that particular neurophysiological capacities of mothers and infants may be more conducive to the synchronization of their interactions than others. This raises the possibility that the chaotic asynchrony observed in clinically diagnosed mother-infant disturbances may have a neurophysiological base.