Presents a variety of social contexts for verbal interaction between adult and child and between children. Discusses the variations in interaction caused by different contexts, as well as features that are consistent across contexts. (HTH)

This article discusses the syntactic behavior of the word "that," usually classified as a relative pronoun but seen here as a conjunction. Data from standard and non-standard English, Yoruba, and Persian are used. (CLK)

Two different approaches to the definition of literature (criterial and prototypical) are described, and some features of a prototypical literary work are outlined. The criterial approach attempts to provide criteria that must be met by all texts to be called literature. The prototype approach focuses on a particularly good example to which other…

A study of the distribution and the nature of the so-called Multiple Subject Construction (MSC) in Korean is presented from the perspective of functional syntax theory. The major proposal is that multiple subjectivization is possible only when the first noun phrase of the multiple subjects is characterized by the rest of the clause. The…

A study of two language corpora (recommendations and specifications produced by the International Telecommunications Union for its members, and a corpus containing university syllabi for economics, biology, and history) investigated lexicographic strategies for identifying terms in specialized texts. In the first phase, a list of all possible term…

Papers on nominal syntagma as objects in discourse include: "Quelques notions utiles a la semantique des descripteurs nominaux" ("Some Useful Notions on the semantics of Nominal Descriptors") (Alain Berrendonner); "Note sur le statut semantique et la fonction de quelques relatives integrees" ("Note on the…

This paper discusses factors contributing to differing translations of the same source text, arguing that translation occurs on a continuum rather than having absolute criteria and procedures. Issues examined include the formal properties of the text, the text's "invariant core of meaning," stability in the semantic elements of the text, the text…

Continuation of article begun in Russisch, v6 n4. (DD)

Special issue devoted to the study of generative grammar in German-speaking countries. (VM)

Infants learn their language by first determining, independent of language, the meaning which a speaker intends to convey to them, and by then working out the relationship between the meaning and the expression they heard. (Author)

Selects technical and popular writings from three scientists in each of four fields, and finds differences in the visual-verbal imagery which each field uses. (MB)

Report of an analysis of the prose of five British and five American authors which seems to refute Francis Christensen's contention that the cumulative sentence" is the typical sentence of modern English." (Author/RD)

Provides a synthesis of findings about lexical and syntactico-semantic differences between spoken and written language. Outlines and critically examines the major theoretical and methodological approaches used in comparative studies of spoken and written language and reexamines the question of how speech and writing relate to prototypical forms of…

Reviews and synthesizes speech act analysis (Austin and Searles), politeness phenomena (Brown and Levinson), rules affecting speaking (Hymes), and activity analysis (Wittgenstein). Advances the notion that the theories are complementary rather than contradictory. (EKN)