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forces behind speakers' choices of language varieties in conversation. Taking such an interactional perspective, I analyze data from anAustrian TV discussion show regarding the communicative functions of speakers' shifts from Austrian standard ('Hochdeutsch') intodialect ('Umgangssprache'). Strategic shifts into dialect, e.g. in side-comments, quotes, or 'Average Joe' explanations, contextualizeutterances in terms of the negative and positive social meanings attaching to dialect use in Austria, allowing discussants to createnegative or positive metamessages, e.g. sarcasm, antagonism, honesty, or 'speaking as one of the people'.Thomas Spencer-Walters (California State University, Northridge) Session 89Ruminations of ‘creole’ in literary discourse: Possibilities & challenges for Sierra Leone Krio & Caribbean CreoleI seek to affirm commonalities among Caribbean Creole and Sierra Leone Krio societies and to show how these commonalities makecomparisons of the uses of creole in literary expressions both credible and plausible. I discuss the paradoxical relationships betweenthe increasing popularity of creole in literary expressions and a reluctance or inability to elevate the languages beyond their currentreferential status in both Sierra Leone and in Caribbean nations. Sierra Leone still struggles with the role of Krio in schools. InTrinidad and Jamaica, similar battles are ongoing about the place of Trinidadian and Jamaican in public discourse.Rebecca Starr (Stanford University) Session 11The role of previous form in predicting NP form in vernacular written CantoneseI examine how various discourse factors, including previous reference form, may be used to predict NP form in Cantonese. In thecase of predicting pronoun vs zero, a binomial logistic regression determines the best model ( χ 2=134.54, p