Polar interrogative sentences differ from declarative sentences in terms of illocutionary forces and the linguistic analysis of their meaning. It is possible to isolate small numbers of syntactic and semantic categories and an unlimited number of illocutionary forces resulting from their interaction with the total situation. (CK)

English has two classes of modal deference expressions that may be superordinate to performative verbs. Verbs representing the illocutionary force of a sentence are sometimes embedded in modal constructions whose function is auxiliary to the central illocutionary act. This phenomenon is discussed in this paper. (CK)

The rate of assimilation of individual features to their target phonetic constraints varies as a function of the general target constraint itself, the segment class affected by the constraint, and the syllable involved. This rate is hypothesized as a measure of the strength or productivity of the phonological rule. (Author/DB)

Argues against the theory that metathesis is less natural phonetically than other processes and distinguished by greater phonological motivation. Cases of consonant-vowel (CV) metathesis (synchronic and diachronic) are surveyed to explain how metathesis sound changes arise. Two types of CV metathesis with distinct synchronic properties and…

A more highly constrained and more explanatory theory of phonology is produced if abbreviatory and essential variables are restricted. (CK)

Attempts to show that the reduplication of indefinite direct objects is not necessarily ungrammatical but that there are two kinds of indefinite direct objects, specified and non-specified. The former may undergo reduplication, the latter may not. (Author/RM)

This article maintains that linguistic generalizations are likely to be invalid when they are based on data whose synchronic status is not well-defined. An example is made of the universal principles of grammatical rule ordering proposed in a 1974 study by Koutsoudas, Sanders, and Noll. (CLK)

Research supported through three National Science Foundation grants. (VM)

The phonological rule that assigns stress at the word level in Modern French is examined in an effort to show how a consideration of productivity, morphological relatedness, and grammatical conditioning motivates a phonetically determined stress rule for Modern French. (Author/RM)

A number of syntactic constructions in Mandarin Chinese are analyzed which, synchronically, are unrelated and highly irregular. However, all reflect a diachronic drift which has been operating in Mandarin Chinese, in the light of which the syntactic constructions can be viewed as structures in transition. (Author/RM)

Transitive softening, or the shift of a dental or velar to a palato-alveolar, and the insertion of a palatalized /1/ after a labial, are examined. The older transformational cycle of Halle is set aside in favor of a morphological rule. Productive and non-productive verb classes are analyzed. (SC)