Discusses whether "kategorija ostojanija" (category of state) should be considered as a part of speech in Russian, proposes a definition of the term "part of speech," and suggests that short adjectives and impersonal nonverbal predicatives be viewed as a single part of speech with personal and impersonal subtypes like Russian verbs. (21…

Argues that words with different meanings normally appear in discriminably different contexts, and that the cue for learning to associate direct antonyms is not their substitutability but rather their frequent co-occurrence in the same sentence. (Author/VWL)

This article is a discussion, within the context of transformational grammar, of the formal relationships which exist between nominal, verbal, and adjectival roots in Swahili. The presentation is made with special reference to a set of subcategorizational rules which relate the given lexical categories. (Author/AMM)

A series of experiments revealed that noun-category bias in children's word learning is present as early as two years of age. Findings indicate that, when children interpret the meaning of novel nouns, they do not sample randomly from the range of possible meanings but focus instead on category relations. (RH)

The purpose of this study was to derive a reliable system for classifying the 1,425 responses of over 800 teacher education candidates to a survey regarding adjectives used to describe teacher characteristics. Previous research had indicated five major themes underlying the adjectives teacher candidates think their students will use in describing…

Proposes that a traditional rule of French grammar concerning the impersonal expression (il + est + adjective + de + infinitive) is so oversimplified as to be fallacious and untenable. (MSE)

Children performed well on tasks involving pictures regardless of whether the pictures were named. Performance on atypical pictures was better when category labels were provided than when labels were not provided. A control study demonstrated that children ignored labels when they named a transient, as opposed to a stable, category. (RH)

A study examined all research articles published in four journals from 1993-2001. Approximately two-thirds of the articles consistently described participants by the diagnostic categories from the 1983 American Association on Mental Retardation (AAMR) diagnostic manual. An average of 10% of the articles described participants in terms of the 1992…

This paper presents two views on the categorization of Japanese nouns, verbs, and adjectives into form classes: the traditional view and a view set forth in the writing of Suzuki Akira. The fundamental issue here is the criterion for categorization. Is it the meaning of words, or is it their grammatical behavior that determines the system of…

Examines how reference points for the categorical interpretation of high and low (adjectives) were defined by three- to five-year-old children and adults. Shows categorical interpretations of relative terms to be complex dependent. (HOD)

This study examined how novel words foster the formation of object categories for 12- to 13-month olds. Results indicated that by 12 to 13 months, infants have begun to distinguish between novel words presented as count nouns versus adjectives in fluent, infant-directed speech, and that infants' expectations for novel words accord with this…

Examined preschoolers' ability to map novel adjectives to object properties in two experiments. Found that 4-year-olds could extend novel adjectives from target to matching test object whether objects were drawn from same, or different, basic level categories. If 3-year-olds' first extended a novel adjective to objects in the same basic level…

Three experiments introduced 2- and 3-year-olds to novel adjectives either using full noun phrases and describing multiple familiar objects sharing a salient property or describing nouns of vague reference. Found that both groups mapped novel adjectives onto object properties when given taxonomically specific nouns with rich referential and…

Examined the role of the psychological process of comparison in young children's ability to extend a novel adjective to other objects sharing a salient property whether objects are of the same or different basic-level categories. Found that comparison operates in conjunction with naming to support extension of novel adjectives to properties of…