Combining linguistics and composition studies, this paper (part 1 of a two-part article) proposes a model for the analysis of information management and cohesion in written discourse. It defines concepts of discourse analysis--specifically information management, syntax, semantic reference, lexicon, cohesion, and intonation, with examples taken…

A new theory of speech acts is proposed that draws a fundamental distinction between speech acts proper--declaratives, interrogatives, and directives--and the myriad social actions that are performed using language such as making promises, making offers, issuing invitations, and asking questions. The theory states that sentences are usally meant…

An analysis of English sentences containing noun phrases (NPs) with extraposed complements argues that the extraposition (EX) is base-generated and not derived by any applications of the Move-alpha principle. A Move-alpha analysis is subject to substantial technical difficulties, and there exist cases of EX for which there is no plausible source…

Arguing that the failure of instructional materials is frequently due to misconceptions held by their developers concerning the nature of comprehension, this chapter examines the factors involved in comprehension and relates them to the design of instructional materials. Three types of errors in comprehension are discussed, and ways to avoid them…

This study presents a grammatical analysis of the Kanuri language as it is spoken in Yerwa, the capital of Borno State in Nigeria. The material is organized in such a way as to be useful to students of the Kanuri language, to linguists, and to Kanuri people interested in the grammar of their language. The text is organized in pedagogical order…

Semantic priming is the process by which a subject performing a lexical decision task is prepared for a target word through the presentation of a semantically related word. Repetition of a given word at specific intervals is one form of priming that has been shown to reduce subject reaction time in word recognition tasks. A study was conducted to…

The ability of 20 deaf or hearing impaired high school students to demonstrate written recall of story propositions and correct story inferences from prose was examined and compared with 20 hearing students. Students were tested individually and were asked to read a story and then to rewrite it without looking at it. Premises in the recalled story…

The application of linguistic analysis of selected function words to the improvement of Hebrew-as-a-second-language reading skills is examined. Semantically, it is shown that form content analysis can provide a unitary meaning to account for various polysemous contextual meanings of Hebrew prepositions. Syntactically and pragmatically, it is shown…

A study of the effect of function words on reading comprehension had as subjects 99 college students of English as a second language (ESL) divided into four groups. The treatment was the reading of a set of passages, written in four versions. In version 1 all function words were deleted; in version 2 function words with semantic weight were…

There is no one universal definition of the term "computer literacy," which, in fact, is used so generally that people often preface references to microcomputers in education with their own definitions of computer literacy. The term is organized semantically in a variety of ways, and central to this semantic organization is a problem of…

Discussed the crucial meanings and usage of American language. (RK)

Many people want a dictionary to give them information about acceptable and unacceptable word usage. The designations "correct" and "incorrect" are not adequate guides, for two reasons: what is acceptable usage does not remain the same from one generation to the next, and some uses that are not appropriate in formal English are appropriate in…