A review of analyses of conditionals (in the philosophical literature) and of topics (primarily in linguistics) reveals that their definitions are very similar. This paper justifies the method of basing semantic analysis of a construction on a cross-linguistic examination of its superficial form. (Author/NCR)

Revised and expanded version of a paper presented at the University of Texas, Austin, October 1971 and at the Linguistic Society of America annual meeting, December 1971. (DD)

Proposes six related cognitive statuses relevant for explicating the use of referring expressions in natural language discourse. A study of the distribution of referring expressions in naturally occurring discourse in English, Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, Russian, and Spanish is offered as support for the proposal. (Contains 91 references.) (Author)

This paper presents an inventory of the features that are necessary to describe vowel systems in the languages of the world. The relationship between the features and then articulatory and acoustic correlates is explored. (Author/NCR)

Recent empirical research into the meaning of words for color provides evidence that contradicts two widely held beliefs in linguistics and the philosophy of language. This paper presents a summary of this evidence, uses it as a basis to construct a general model of basic color-term semantics, and explores the implications of this model for…

Investigation of data from many languages has the following results: (1) the characteristics of classifier languages are distinguished, and four types identified; (2) defining criteria are postulated for classifiers, and it is discovered that every classifier is composed of one or more out of seven categories of classification. (CHK)

Research on which portions of this study are based was performed under a National Science Foundation Grant and a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. (VM)

An underlying representation for passive sentences in Mojave and Uto-Aztecan is proposed, and the broader issues that arise in extending the analysis to other languages and incorporating it in linguistic theory as a substantive language universal are explored. (Author/RM)

This study presents evidence for the psychological reality of the Subset Principle as a determinant of the acquisition of Governing Category Parameter settings for English anaphors and pronominals. Prelingual deafness was used as a natural experiment in the acquisition of English in the presence of variably impaired access to English language…