Examines reflexivization in Italian and demonstrates that the proposals that (1) reflexive pronouns and their antecedents must be clausemates, and (2) the specified subject and tensed-S conditions, cannot be maintained as universals. (AM)

This research deals with how extraction rules are constrained in cases where their unconstrained application would give rise to semantic ambiguity. Of particular concern is the application of extraction rules to noun phrases (NP's) where word order is the only indication of the different syntactic functions of two adjacent NP's. Samples from…

In an experiment conducted with 31 three-, four- and five-year-old Japanese children evidence was found for self-created definitions of the direct and indirect objects of verbs. Linguistic rules undergoing change during the course of the experiment were also observed. The results can be understood as showing that children are guided in their…

Presents theoretical syntactic formulas for translating sentences from one language to another. (KM)

The necessity is asserted for constructing a theory of contrastive analysis which would incorporate both translation equivalence and "form and placement of the rules in grammar" as criteria for making decisions concerning comparability. (Available from: See FL 508 214). (Author/RM)

The nature of grammatical relations such as subject and object are examined. The ways in which subjects differ from language to language are described and the way in which a language can do without a subject relation is revealed. Three primitive functional properties of sentences which underlie the syntactic relations of subject and topic are…

The constraints in English on the definiteness, specificity, humaness and animacy of noun phrases (NP's) undergoing passive and dative movement are examined. Evidence presented shows that these constraints occur in other languages in marked and unmarked constructions as absolute constraints on acceptability or as tendencies. This suggests a…

Seeks to formulate a definition of imperativity based on extralinguistic rather than formal notions. (TL)

This paper is an empirical study of Dryer's (1980) universal hierarchy of positions of sentential complements as a predictor of second language acquisition. The place of universal grammar in second language research is discussed, as is Dryer's hierarchy and preliminary psycholinguistic evidence in support of it. The results of an experiment…

This report considers the early stages of grammatical development in the child. It summarizes some cross-linguistic similarities in acquisition of several different types of languages: English (both white and black, lower and middle class), German, Russian, Finnish, Samoan, and Luo. With this small but diverse collection of languages and cultures…

Four hypotheses concerning the linguistic structure of yes-no questions and their answers are considered as hypotheses relating to the abstract structure of yes-no questions and to this abstract structure in all human languages. The universal base hypotheses are the following: (1) The abstract representation of all yes-no questions includes two…

A review of analyses of conditionals (in the philosophical literature) and of topics (primarily in linguistics) reveals that their definitions are very similar. This paper justifies the method of basing semantic analysis of a construction on a cross-linguistic examination of its superficial form. (Author/NCR)

Argues that the explanation of the use of "ser" and "estar" with locatives presented in the March 1984 issue of "Hispania" derives so directly from a theory of universal grammar because it is indicative of the explanatory adequacy of Case Grammar or of other, comparable theories of the deeper levels of linguistic structure. (SED)