Reports on a study of the classroom acquisition of German word order by adult learners. Results of the study support the claim that classroom and naturalistic second language acquisition of complex grammatical features such as word order follow similar routes. (50 references) (Author/OD)

Presents a monoclausal, multipredicate analysis of Japanese causatives, adopting the fundamentals of Relational Grammar. Two classes of causatives, distinguished by the matrix subject's agentivity, exist. The surface case marking of the causee is constrained by its relationship to the matrix subject with respect to a set of Proto-Agent…

Presents evidence for a theory that children learning Russian at a certain age know a syntactic principle that governs the distribution of pronouns, but that they do not know a pragmatic or semantic principle that restricts the situations in which noun phrases may be contraindexed. (Contains 48 references.) (JP)

Two experiments were conducted to explore processing of relative clause structures by normal elderly adults. Four groups of subjects (aged 20-29 years, 60-69 years, 70-79 years, and 80-89 years) participated in a lexical decision task and a sentence repetition task. (19 references) (VWL)

Discusses the relevance and validity of using language data other than English for grammatical and psycholinguistic classroom research. A practical teacher training activity is described that is designed to not only develop trainees' syntactic analysis skills, but also raise awareness of their grammatical learning style and how this style relates…

Examines the effects of other linguistic structures on the process of phonological downstep (where pitch declines during the course of utterances) in Japanese. It is concluded that the downstep process involves not only a phonological aspect but two other aspects, metrical and rhythmic. (23 references) (JL)

Discusses Tone sandhi, the tone changes undergone by tone-bearing syllables in juxtaposition, in several Chinese dialects. The tone group is examined as a syntatico-semantic unit in Fuzhou and Mandarin and as a syntactic boundary-marker in Shanghai and Xiamen. The theoretical and pedagogical implications are discussed. (20 references) (JL)

Reports evidence from a longitudinal study showing that the relationship between children's sensitivity to rhyme and alliteration and their success in reading is highly specific and cannot be accounted for in terms of general language ability. (GLR)

Investigated the source of agrammatic aphasic patients' difficulty comprehending semantically reversible sentences. Found approximately equal distributions of three distinct patterns. Results conflict with explanations of comprehension failure which state that a single pattern of performance on sentence structures characterizes comprehension of…

The present article examines one property of bilingual speech--convergence--and strives towards explanatory depth by attending to the insights of the antecedent research in formal linguistics, psycholinguistics, and sociolinguistics. In particular, the paper adopts as a point of departure (and further substantiates) the argument that convergence…

Two reading experiments investigated the extent to which the presence of phonemic repetition in sentences influenced processing difficulty during syntactic ambiguity resolution. In both experiments, participants read sentences silently as reading time was measured. Reading time on sentences containing a temporary syntactic ambiguity was compared…

The study examines one component of the system of complementation in Palestinian Arabic. It is argued that the complementizer in question has an inherent semantics capable of influencing the meaning of sentences in which it is embedded. Specifically, its presence in a complex sentence communicates modal meanings distinct from those communicated by…

Two papers on linguistic theory are presented. The first examines the relationship between two subsystems of Danish grammar: (1) the morphology and meaning of the two passives (a morphological passive and a periphrastic passive); and (2) the word order rules and meanings attached to indefinite subjects, irrespective of voice. It is claimed that…

An integrated analysis of the syntax and semantics of serial verb constructions (SVCs) in a group of West African languages is presented. With data from Dagaare and closest relatives, a structural definition for SVCs is developed (two or more lexical verbs that share grammatical categories within a clause), establishing SVCs as complex predicates.…

A study investigated the hypothesis that, for adult native speakers of English, increasing syntactic complexity would lead to increased salience of phonological properties of words. The study also examined whether syntactic simplicity would lead to a greater salience of semantic properties of words. Subjects were required to name a word presented…