In this article we offer up a particular linguistic phenomenon, quantifier-variable binding in Kannada ditransitives, as a proving ground upon which competing claims about learnability can be evaluated with respect to the relative abstractness of children's grammatical knowledge. We first identify one aspect of syntactic representation that…

This paper demonstrates that a formalization of the content of X-bar theory reveals very little substance in its claims. Six conditions that encapsulate X-bar theory are discussed: lexicality, succession, uniformity, maximality, centrality, and optionality. (50 references) (JL)

It is proposed that syntactic processes (rules and constraints) may have a semantic basis. Evidence is presented that the constraint against backward pronominalization with indefinite antecedents derives from the semantic properties of various classes of definite noun phrases. (CK)

Simplification in structure and confluence between the local-language structure and the prestige-language structure are usually predicted in language death as in pidginization. For a dying Scottish Gaelic dialect, speakers were tested in the two most excessively complex morphological structures the dialect offers. (Author/NCR)

In communicating, conversationalists constantly make decisions about their interlocutors' state of knowledge and on the basis of these decisions make lexical, grammatical, and intonational choices about how to manage the "flow" of information. This paper focuses on how such decision making affects choices in relative clause constructions…

Two aspects of definite and indefinite noun phrases in Spanish grammar are discussed here: specificity, marked by the mood of restrictive relative clauses, and existential import, deriving from the linguistic environment. Differences between referential and attributive descriptions are explained. (CK)