Deaf Learners' Acquisition of fundamental lexical properties of high-frequency English verbs related to transitivity and intransitivity was examined, including the subtle distinction between unergative and unaccusative verbs. A 140-item sentence acceptability rating scale was used to assess this lexical knowledge in deaf college students at two…

In vocabulary testing, whether to adopt context is a heat-debated topic. In the article, an experiment is designed to investigate what is the effect of zero context and sentence context on the vocabulary testing? And how do the different kinds of context in vocabulary affect the subjects' performance? The experimental result demonstrates that…

The influence of children's levels of field-dependence-independence on their performance with the passive transformation was investigated. Eighty 6th graders, classified as field-dependent or field-independent, were presented with sentence-question combinations, each in either the active or passive voice, and numbers of correct responses were…

This paper introduces the Government-Binding Theory of grammar and offers examples of the theory's use in areas of language development, child language disorders, and adult aphasia. Discussed are the levels of representation of Universal Grammar, subtheories that constrain the representations at each level, parameter setting, core grammar, and…

THIS IS THE FIRST MAJOR SECTION OF A CHAPTER PREPARED FOR "THE MANUAL OF CHILD PSYCHOLOGY," P.H. MUSSEN, EDITOR, IN PREPARATION. IT IS AN INTRODUCTION TO TRANSFORMATIONAL GRAMMAR WRITTEN FOR PSYCHOLOGISTS AND PRESENTS SOME OF THE MAJOR IDEAS THAT HAVE BEEN DEVELOPED IN MODERN LINGUISTIC THEORY, ALONG WITH CERTAIN OF THEIR PSYCHOLOGICAL…

In the current debate about the development of language in children, the author agrees with those psycholinguists who emphasize the role of "imitation followed by analogical extension." That is to say, that if there are inborn discovery procedures for the acquisition of language, they are distributional rather than transformational in nature. On…

A summative evaluation of a Program English curriculum which found that the effects of a study of transformational grammar on the language growth of secondary school students was negligible. (DD)

Summarizes the results of attempts to teach a young chimpanzee to use sign language, and raises questions about the uniqueness of human language. Analyzes language development in children and suggests that humans differ from nonhuman primates in the ability to analyze the environment into parts which can be manipulated in the mind, and that it is…

This paper argues against three premises of language innatism: 1) language is oral; 2) language is species-specific; and 3) man has a built-in language-specific capacity. (CHK)

New discoveries in linguistics call into question established systems of reading instruction. (JH)

A comment on the considerations William Watt must deal with in order to establish his belief that transformational grammar and psychology are at odds in their rules for theory building. (SC)

A report on a study in progress of the acquisition of a syntax rule: inversion in questions beginning with "Wh..". Its purpose is to show how certain modifications of linguistic theory and practice can contribute to this study and to psychology of language in general. (Text is in French.) (AMH)

Research supported in part by a grant from the United States Public Health Service. (DD)