When speakers repair speech errors, they plan the repair in the context of an abandoned word (the error) that is usually similar in meaning or form. Two picture-naming experiments tested whether the error's lexical representations influence repair planning. Context pictures were sometimes replaced with target pictures; the picture names were…

Designed to analyze systematically the relative effects of different types of oral reading errors on comprehension, this instrument consists of a basic set (each with an easy and a hard version) of six stories. Every story is transformed so that it contains simulated errors of a particular type: (1) correct, (2) semantically related visually…

Students of French are now more fluent orally than their counterparts of a few years ago. They are using, however, a more anglicized French. The causes are three: (1) unawareness of the value of words; (2) infrequent use of reference material, specifically the dictionary; (3) lack of adequate knowledge of basic rules. (CFM)

Compares the written English of Chinese ESL students and native English-speaking Australian students. Analyzes the texts for four semantic components: experiential; interpersonal, textual, and logical. Also analyzes the errors made by both groups. (EKN)

Measures the extent to which students' reactions to usage errors changed as a result of having completed a business communication course. Finds that student reactions to usage errors can be positively affected by completion of a business communication class that does not have a formal basic skills development unit. (PRA)

Investigated the time course of activation of the mental representations of word meanings in a series of three cross-modal priming experiments. The study interprets the data with respect to both localist and distributed implementations of the cohort model. Results indicate that if early competition among simultaneously activated meanings exists,…

Examines semantic errors produced by normal and aphasic speakers on a picture naming test for their phonological similarity to the targets they replace. A second study examines phonological relationships within sets of semantically related words and shows there is no tendency for these words to share phonological characteristics. (35 references)…

Describes a language generation system, which, given data files describing a natural language, generates utterances of the class the user has specified. The system can exercise control over the syntax, lexicon, morphology, and semantics of the language. This article explores a range of the system's potential applications to second-language…

Generalizations regarding languages should be presented to students to aid them in mastering the surface forms they encounter. Hoffmen's analysis of modals postulates a root meaning and an epistemic meaning for modals and predicts that the root interpretation is generally excluded by the progressive and perfect tenses. This system may form the…

Examines kanji errors in handwriting of Japanese students and Australian learners of Japanese. Finds that Japanese students' phonologically-related kanji writing errors were most numerous, followed by orthographically-related errors and semantically-related errors; while Australian students wrote more non-existing kanji and made…

Examined how skilled adult readers assign meaning to sentences. Of particular interest were sentences containing "experiencer" verbs, which describe states or emotions rather than actions. Subjects were university students in Australia. Test items were semantically implausible sentences. (Author/VWL)

The uses of the present progressive tense in informal English spoken discourse are examined, focusing on the increasing frequency of the so-called stative or non-action verbs found in the progressive aspect. Generalizations are proposed to account for: (1) the discrepancy between grammar book explanations and actual usage, and (2) the meaning of…

This discussion is based on the results of an earlier experiment in which four groups of deaf subjects, ranging in age of first exposure to signing from birth to over eighteen, were given lists of sentences in American Sign Language to shadow and recall immediately after presentation. It was found that in terms of overall accuracy, early learners…

Two children's spontaneous utterances containing the comparative structure are examined for their semantic content. Many comparatives are found to encode the notion "A has property X," and this use is often found in reference to the presence of X to an extreme, rather than a non-extreme, extent. The uses of the comparative are analyzed…

Describes the phonology, grammar and semantics of Technical English in India. Interference from the mother tongue and from Common English is also discussed. (KM)