A number of errors which typify the English speech or writing of Egyptian students of EFL (English as a foreign language) were identified. A series of matched sentences -- some containing a deviant feature, others not -- were recorded by a native speaker of English and by a native speaker of Arabic. Groups of intermediate and of advanced EFL…

The techniques of transformational grammar can be used effectively to identify and describe significant differences in the language competencies of children at several grade levels. The oral language responses of 150 elementary school children and 30 kindergartners (selected at random) to two silent, animated films of Aesop's "Fables" were…

These volumes (with tests) on constructing effective English sentences are designed for secondary students who do not often hear standard dialects--e.g., the deaf, the disadvantaged, or the speakers of English as a second language. Transformational-generative grammar is used to describe the structures and operations that the student most needs.…

Automatic speech recognition is expected to be more successful when syntactically-related information is incorporated into early stages of recognition. Phonemic decisions, in particular, are expected to be more accurate and less ambiguous when contextual information is considered. A computer program detected about 90% of all boundaries between…

This Radio-TV class reader contains material from the Introduction and Unit I of the beginning Latin course based on the audiolingual method. The text consists of listening exercises composed of words or sentences with corresponding pictures followed by pattern practices on sentence structure, and question-answer exercises. The reader is designed…

Within the realm of psycholinguistics there is a need to investigate linguistic performance based on the generative transformational concept of linguistic competence, i.e., based on the speaker-listener's knowledge of his language. Psycholinguistics must determine how underlying knowledge is related to overt performance. The nominalization and…

This document describes a format for analyzing the information content of sentences and the language patterns that accompany particular information content. The author writes in terms of information structures, each information structure having a corresponding linguistic structure composed of distinctive features. The information structure of a…

This textbook of Modern English combines a diachronic and synchronic approach to present a study of English syntax. The book attaches great importance to precise definitions of the various parts of speech and of their grammatical function, and provides a large number of idiomatic examples to illustrate rules and uses. Historical background is…

Hierarchies have been identified as determinants of constituent order. The set of such hierarchies is reviewed and ranked as determinants of NP sequencing in English. The effect of a hierarchy in other languages is compared to and contrasted with what is found in English. (Author/LMO)

Patterns of speech from lower socioeconomic status mothers to their infants were analyzed to determine correlations with infant risk of mental retardation. Measures of maternal language included sentence form, amount of speech, and syntactic complexity. The proportion of imperatives was positively correlated with risk status and negatively…

Reports four experiments examining subject-verb agreement errors in Spanish and English. Discusses cross-linguistic differences within the framework of the computational model of grammatical encoding proposed by Kempen and Hoenkamp. Suggests that languages differ in the extent to which the selection of the verb is controlled by features on the…

Highlighting similarities in the processes of reading and writing can help teachers establish a more unified program allowing students to develop skills that transfer from one process to another. One activity to help students develop reading skills focuses on the "who, what, where, when" types of patterns that recur in sentences and…

Most of the mechanical and content errors in the sentences written by journalism students can be attributed to four faulty patterns that can be traced to errors in the thinking process: fragmented sentence parts, personification, bureaucratic coding ("officialese"), and compressed sentences. While acceptable in spoken communication where…

This paper attempts to give a unified view of the workings of noun clauses. These are considered according to three main types corresponding to three different kinds of source sentences. All three types can be used in any usual noun-phrase function, especially subject, direct object, and prepositional object. Four factors which complicate the…

A glossary of commonly used grammatical terms that would be useful to students and teachers of French is presented here. Although not complete, it offers basic definitions in English of grammatical forms and functions as well as examples in French of each term defined. The definitions cover parts of speech, grammatical functions, sentences,…