Interpretation <i>is</i> opinion: realigning the fact/opinion distinction in English defamation law

Perfecting Polly Peck: Defences of Truth and Opinion in Australian Defamation Law and Practice

Parties in civil defamation disputes very often disagree about what the publication in question means. While the differences may appear minor — for example, does the publication convey that the plaintiff is guilty of some discreditable action or merely suspected of such guilt — the way in which these differences are handled in law and litigation practice has great importance. Dealing well with ...

Imputation or Publication: the Cause of Action in Defamation Law

Australia does not have uniform defamation law. Each of the eight states and territories has its own law,2 despite decades of reform efforts.3 But, after statements by the Commonwealth Attorney-General late in 2003,4 national defamation reform again appears possible. The matter is before the Standing Committee of Attorneys-General, and the federal government appears willing to act if states and...

Count-mass Distinction in the Acquisition of English Articles by Persian Learners of English

Articles in general and definite articles in particular can create problems even long after all other aspects of English have been mastered. The present article investigated the learnability problems related to the acquisition of count-mass distinction of English nominals by Persian L2 learners. The theoretical underpinning of the study is the interpretability hypothesis (Tsimpli & Dimitrakopou...

The Social Foundations of Defamation Law: Reputation and the Constitution

The strong/weak syllable distinction in English.

Strong and weak syllables in English can be distinguished on the basis of vowel quality, of stress, or of both factors. Critical for deciding between these factors are syllables containing unstressed unreduced vowels, such as the first syllable of automata. In this study 12 speakers produced sentences containing matched sets of words with initial vowels ranging from stressed to reduced, at norm...