This work proposes a definition of the notion of salience in sociolinguistics. Salient linguistic variants are those that are easily picked up by the listeners, and these stand in opposition to 'invisible' variants, which are, even if they also show complex social stratification, completely ignored. Taking a quantitative angle, this work sees salience as a function of relative frequency differences, giving it an empirically testable operationalisation.

The central hypothesis of this book is that the differences to be observed between future time restrictive and future time non-restric-tive relative clauses cannot be generalized to include just any issue relating to tense in relative clauses. I will illustrate the similarities between restrictive and non-restrictive relative clauses and show that the differences between them occur primarily in (a) future time contexts and (b) "world-posterior indirectly bound" contexts.

Complete the following sentences using appropriate relative pronouns.

Exercise with answers.

What are relative pronouns? - Grammar short lesson-

Read the following pairs of sentences:

    I saw a little girl. She was very beautiful.
    I know a man. His son is at Oxford.
    He got a letter. He had been expecting it.

Each of these pairs can be combined into a single sentence…..

Anxious Parents: A History of Modern Childrearing in America

The nineteenth and twentieth centuries saw a dramatic shift in the role of children in American society and families. No longer necessary for labor, children became economic liabilities and twentieth-century parents exhibited a new level of anxiety concerning the welfare of their children and their own ability to parent effectively. What caused this shift in the ways parenting and childhood were experienced and perceived? Why, at a time of relative ease and prosperity, do parents continue to grapple with uncertainty and with unreasonable expectations of both themselves and their children?