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)

In Quiegolani Zapotec (QZ), a language spoken by approximately 3,000 people in Oaxaca, Mexico, words contain minimal consonant clusters of two or even three consonants, and most of these clusters show a decreasing scope of sonority. This violates sonority constraints proposed by Greenberg (1978) and further discussed by Bell and Saka (1983). QZ,…

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)

Data are presented from Amele and other Papuan languages to show how the medial verb form is marked for a binary distinction of realis versus irrealis modality. It is demonstrated that in these languages realis-irrealis distinction interacts with categories of tense and mood marked on the final verb to divide them into domains of realis and…

Summarizes some of the syntactic differences between English and Japanese in such areas as word order, wh-movement, subject-auxiliary inversion, expletives, multiple subject constructions, scrambling, and modifiable pro-forms in Japanese. (26 references) (CB)

Studies the variety of Arabic imperative sentences seen as a result of interrelated sets of choices from a limited number of binary systems, and accounts for their occurrence in certain situations. Relevant features of Arabic imperative structures are compared with their nearest English equivalents. (CB)

Study of verb-copying in Mandarin Chinese, focusing on its relationship to the thematic structures of verbs and on phrase structures, shows that the function of verb-copying is to highlight the quantity element in a sentence. (21 references) (Author/CB)

A pilot study attempting to determine the feasibility and value of a cognition-based study of classifiers in Chinese demonstrated that the use of the classifier "tiao" was not an arbitrary linguistic device of categorization, but represented some type of human categorization based on an imputed salient perceptual property of extension of…

A formal reading of word groups and a same/different listening test revealed that Hungarian Americans in South Bend, Indiana, exhibit a continuum in a short front unrounded low vowel phoneme, showing important differences between the informant's perception and production. The Hungarian-American and metropolitan Hungarian data were compared to…

Phonological models of feature geometry suggest that the internal structure of segments is highly articulated. Distinctive features are organized hierarchically within the segment, and this hierarchical organization is relatively stable across and within languages. In this study, the distinctive feature (lateral) is the focus of investigation. (84…

Examines Modern Greek verbs which seem to be negative-raisers, including consideration of data that offer syntactic justification for negative-raisers and an examination of the semantics and pragmatics of the negative-raisers. (CB)

Paper written at a field workshop conducted by Joseph E. Grimes; research conducted under the auspices of the Summer Institute of Linguistics, July 1968-January 1971, and partially supported by the National Science Foundation. (DD)

A contrastive analysis clarifies the differences in the formation of English and Persian verbs through examination of language differences in person, tense, phase, aspect, mode, voice, and status. (27 references) (CB)

A review of a workbook used to teach Portuguese to Spanish-speaking students showed that, although contrastive analysis techniques can present some serious problems when applied to languages that are not closely related, they can be effectively used to teach a language that is close to the learner's native, or previously acquired, language. (seven…