Provides a contemporary Government-and-Binding reinterpretation and evaluation of Klima and Bellugi's 1966 work on the acquisition of interrogatives. It is argued that wh-questions in Child English involve a wh-pronoun positioned in the head complementizer position within the Complementizer Phrase (CP) and that children learn that wh-questions…

The assignment of primary stress to English words by a group of Arab speakers was studied by having the speakers pronounce both different types of words and validated nonsense words. Results indicate that newly concocted words may not be correctly pronounced by a significant number of subjects selected from the same populations. (18 references)…

Evaluates the use of oral translation as a second-language teaching activity. Shows that, with a proper regard for the principles of translation theory, translation can play a valuable role in second-language teaching and that translation should be an integral part of the language learning program. (HB)

In this study, phonological similarity neighborhood sizes were calculated for expressive lexicon derived from 2 vocabulary lists representative of children aged 1;3 to 3;0. Over 80% of the words in these early lexicons had at least one phonological neighbor; nearly 20% had six or more phonological neighbors. (Contains 29 references.)

Fourteen mothers and their children participated in a storybook reading session in which the mothers taught their children both a basic-level count noun and a situation-restricted count noun for a series of object drawings. Analysis of mothers' spontaneous teaching strategies revealed that they typically taught a basic-level count noun before a…

This paper illustrates the use of corpus-based analytical techniques to address a range of issues in applied linguistics. This approach provides large databases of naturally occurring discourse, enabling empirical analyses of the actual patterns of use in a language and, when coupled with automatic computational tools, enables analyses of a scope…

A model of language vitality is proposed that is a function of preferences for language choice, percentage of language-minority speakers, and the expectations-based adjustment to the observed change in language vitality. It shows that long-term survival with low demolinguistic figures is possible and suggests policy guidelines for reversing…

Uses examples of conversation drawn from a mediation session to show how intentions, as discursive formations, are central not only to both narrative structure and interaction sequences but to the politics of subject position in discourse as well. Discusses the management of subject position in terms of critical coherence points. (SR)

Examines how the collaborative scheme is used to balance the demands of accuracy and efficiency during routine and nonroutine pilot-controller communication. Suggests that several communication problems can be traced to nonstandard collaborative practices that tax controller and pilot attention and memory. (SR)

Responds to Sarah J. McCarthey's article in the same issue. Considers two issues: the social context of conducting language research, and the treatment of language in research on classroom reading and writing. Requests a discussion of the social context of conducting research. (HB)

A review of some of the interesting aspects of Hakka dialect studies precedes a discussion of areas needing further linguistic study, such as its resemblance to and contacts with other Chinese dialects, tonal correspondences, and the study of Chinese dialects from a Wellentheorie perspective. (53 references) (CB)

To test whether additive bilinguals are more linguistically creative than monolinguals, a creativity index, based upon linguistic features thought to correspond to the distinctive features of creativity, was calculated from essays written by pupils in a Finnish-Swedish comprehensive school. The results did not seem to reveal higher creativity…

The discourse of Singaporean "English-knowing bilinguals" is examined using a new model, "expanding triangles," which involves an increasing English-speaking base population and two distinctive English speech clines. It is suggested that the expanding triangles concept allows better comprehension of the otherwise haphazard and infinite array of…

Explores the relationship between linguistic and conceptual structuring of narratives, focusing on linguistic devices used by German and U.S. narrators to identify transitions in text structure. Identifies and outlines two types of narrative orientation: differentiating events and integrating events. (SR)

The relationship between second-language acquisition (SLA) and other disciplines is examined, beginning with a review of SLA studies and the broader field of applied linguistics and language pedagogy. It is argued that SLA must be recognized as a field important to linguistics, pedagogy, and psychology. (37 references) (Author/LB)