The study summarized in this paper deals with the grammatical analysis of the spontaneous speech of approximately 150 children who are classified as mentally disabled; educable (I.Q. range 50-80). The performance of these mentally disadvantaged children is compared with the performance of 200 normally developing children by using a clinical…

This paper is a report of two studies of the relationship between intonation and syntax. An analysis of intonation was used to decide whether the pivot-like two-morpheme constructions of a one- and one-half-year-old girl were single lexical items or two separate lexical items. Further, the intonation contours connected with her linguistically…

A study was conducted to determine the efficacy of utilizing Leach's interrogation model as a means for analyzing question types used by mothers and their children's responses to various interrogative forms. Data analyzed consisted of language samples obtained from three preschool children and their mothers during mother-child interactions plus…

Two experiments were carried out to see what parts of a sentence are best retained, whether those parts retained best immediately after acquisition are also remembered best after a 48 hour retention interval, and whether or not the parts of a sentence which are retained depend on the semantic and syntactic structure of that sentence. In the first…

This paper reports on a preliminary quantitative study of syntactic constraints on code-switching within discourses in which no change in participants, setting or topic is evident. The goals of the study are to provide a syntactic description of the points at which switches from Spanish to English and English to Spanish are possible and to assess…

Overlapping samples of 191, 142, and 87 undergraduates rated pairs of sentences for the frequency and acceptability of the syntactic constructions represented to investigate the feasibility of using such ratings in the study of syntactic forms. The results indicated that subjects are consistent in their judgments of both the frequency and…

Data from undergraduates' ratings of the frequency and acceptability of selected syntactic constructions are analyzed for linguistically defined sets. Mean ratings of frequency and acceptability as well as the results from a cluster analysis of each set of sentences are given for seven target contrasts: active/passive, may/might, perfect/past,…

As may be seen from data collected during language observations of four children over a period of two and a half years, children's sentences are not simply flawed versions of adult counterparts, but seem to result from a different grammar. These data indicate that logical formatives, such as "even," and "only," are sentence-initial constituents.…

The question of whether word meanings have internal structure identical in kind to the syntax of sentences is examined. Evidence is sought for the structural aspects of word meaning and the issue of whether judgements of similarity between words is based on meaning content or on meaning structure is raised. Four hypotheses were tested: (1)…

The first part of this paper provides a description and discussion of the major aspects of the process of relativization in Israeli Hebrew: (a) the use of a subordinating relative particle which in most cases can neither be deleted nor replaced and which is prefixed to the first constituent of the embedded S; (b) the obligatory pronominalization…

This paper explores the meanings and distribution of the perfect in contemporary American English prose, with reference to problems encountered in teaching English as a second language. The English perfect comprises forms traditionally called present perfect tense, past perfect tense, and perfects of the infinitive, gerund and present participle.…

Analysis of the questions asked by normal children suggests that there are cognitive stages of question development. Samples of spontaneous questions asked by normal children and linguistically deviant children were compared in this study in order to determine if linguistically deviant (aphasic) children suffer primarily from a syntactic…

The notes and articles in the present compilation constitute, for the most part, reports of work in progress by the Language Research Foundation staff, and are circulated to interested scholars for the purpose of inviting comments, criticism, and suggestions. Contents include: (1) "The Export of TESOL: Are Audio-lingual Techniques Universally…

The purpose of the study was to apply various quantitative and qualitative indices of grammatical complexity proposed by Hunt (1965) to written language samples of hearing impaired students. Hunt studied grammatical structures of normal students at three grade levels, and found that the minimal terminal syntactic unit, or T-Unit, more reliably…

The two purposes of this study were (1) to explore the validity of certain indexes used to measure children's development toward maturity in the control of English syntax, and (2) to examine the characteristic exploitation of syntactic resources (a) by boys and girls, (b) at various age-grade levels, and (c) in speech and writing. The normative…