This paper sketches out the main views of the major pragmatic approaches (i.e., Grice's theory of conversation, Relevance Theory, and Neo-Gricean pragmatic theory) on explicit-implicit distinction. It makes clear how this distinction has been differently drawn for utterance interpretation. Additionally, it highlights several corresponding problems…

Slobin's (1996) "thinking for speaking" hypothesis has been recently adopted by second language researchers as a valuable lens from which to examine the complexities of possible conceptual restructuring during interlanguage development. This paper reviews a sample of studies analyzing the linguistic and conceptual patterns observed in…

Investigation of data regarding the use of "so'n" in authentic German speech situations suggests that speakers used the form as a hedging expression indicating uncertainty or discomfort, enabling them to indicate their attitudes about various aspects of the speech situation. (21 references) (Author/CB)

Explores data regarding the elision and epenthesis of the Spanish intervocalic /y/ and the underspecification of Spanish vowels and semivowels. Results lead to the proposal that such elision results from the Obligatory Contour Principle, operating on an autosegmental tier defining front vowels and /y/. (56 references) (CB)

Analysis of the structural, semantic, and textual aspects of a corpus of 330 English examples of the postpositive conjunctions "though,""as," and "that" focuses on concessive clauses, clauses of reason, clauses of manner, and clauses with postpositive conjunctions and normal clauses. (CB)

Discusses phonic shifting or sound shifts through an examination of Grimm's Law, or the Germanic Consonant Shift. The discussion includes comments on why the phonic shift developed and its pattern. (10 references) (GLR)

Argues for the existence of a pro-prepositional phrase category whose licensing condition requires it to be theta marked by a head. This licensing condition explains the difference found regarding silent prepositional phrases between Class A and Class B prepositional verbs. (CB)

Examines 11 types of uses of the English word "with," demonstrating that speakers who use the word have an implicit knowledge of its multiple meanings and uses, which far exceeds their explicit knowledge of the word. (CB)

Reviews a wide-ranging formal analysis of Chinese syntax that explores the role of case theory in the phrase structure of Chinese. (15 references) (CB)

Demonstrates how the important distinction between the locative and nonlocative implication of a noun is essential for the presence of the Chinese locative particle "li," identifying groups of nouns that can not take the particle, nouns that optionally use the particle, and nouns that must use the particle. (CB)

Considers the use of the Indonesian preposition "oleh" in verb constructions and argues that the construction without this preposition has an incorporated agent. (CB)

Examines the syntactic and semantic relationship between verb forms I and II in modern standard Arabic. The main function of form II verbs was causative/factitive, with the core elements of the causative including (1) agent-subject, (2) action-process verb, and (3) patient-object. (CB)

Describes a computer-based connectionist-type network model that correctly identified the gender of a set of French nouns, relying solely on information inherent in the nouns' structures, in the absence of explicit rules for evaluating nouns, through discovering criterial gender-specific features through examples of masculine and feminine nouns.…

An outline is given of the tone system common to all varieties of anglophone West African English. The main features of the system are described, both in terms of linguistic description and in terms of varieties. (GLR)

Argues for the application of historical linguistic information in the college second language classroom, maintaining that such knowledge will help to enlighten and enrich second language study by forcing both students and teachers to examine and understand aspects of the language. (CB)