The Spanish psychological verb construction seems to be especially difficult for native English-speaking learners to acquire. Since some of the most common Spanish psych verbs, such as "gustar" (to please) and "encantar" (to delight), require a grammatical structure that is different from that of the English verbs frequently…

This brief survey of the field of psycholinguistics is intended for both students and anyone interested in language. It contains a summary overview of the main features of this area of language study: scope and principles of inquiry; basic concerns; and key concepts. Chapter topics include: language acquisition (first words, the birth of grammar,…

This study addressed two questions concerning subject-verb agreement and erroneous feature migration in French second language learners: whether multiple or single token items elicit greater errors in subject-verb agreement, and whether linear distance increases errors in agreement. Empirical research suggests that a mismatch in number between…

A system for classifying (coding) translations of sentence-length or similar material is presented and illustrated with codings of entries in the "Dictionary of Foreign Phrases and Classical Quotations." Problems in coding are discussed, relating especially to intertextuality, intention, and ownership. The system is intended for pedagogic use, and…

A typology of role-playing and simulation exercises based on interpersonal interactions, used in second language instruction, is presented. Ten dimensions of such simulations were identified, which can then be used as criteria for classifying the exercises. The dimensions include: the starting point of the simulation; complexity of the…

A study examined the validity of the distinction between interactional language, used to express social relations and personal attitudes, and transactional language, which conveys factual or prepositional information and is message oriented, within and across languages and cultures. Data were drawn from natural telephone conversations of three…

English nominalizations turn verbs and adjectives into nouns systematically, but their meanings can change unpredictably. In the United States, college composition handbooks urge students to avoid using nominalizations, but elsewhere secondary students learn to write them responsibly and to recognize being manipulated when reading them.…

Based on the unsubstantiated conclusion of many Hualapai analysts that the glottal stop is one of the phonemes of the language, this paper argues that the glottal stop is for the most part predictable. Data are presented to show the instability as well as the predictability of the glottal stop, and rules are presented, based on the Sound Pattern…

Within a psycholinguistic approach to second language learning, an attempt is made to investigate the question of how morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics affect the comprehension of Dutch sentences by nonnative learners of that language. When talking to nonnative language-learners, native speakers often tend to deliberately modify their…

A study was carried out in Kenya to investigate the oral lexical production of learners of English as a Second Language with different native languages. The overall results revealed a clear difference between the Kenya language speakers on the one hand and native speakers on the other: native speakers showed an overwhelming preference for manner…

This serial is intended as a forum for the presentation, in print, of the latest original research by the faculty and students of the Department of Linguistics and other related departments at the University of Kansas. Papers include the following: "Inferentials: The Story of a Forgotton Evidential" (Gerald Delahunty); "Knowledge of…

In an analysis of 20 scholarly journal articles in the hard sciences and 20 from the humanities, text was examined for author comments on hypotheses, probabilities, and evaluations. These include such expressions as "It cannot be denied, it seems likely, it was presumed," etc. Such comments were found to be somewhat more common in science-related…

Linguistics is the study of language, as contrasted with knowledge of a specific language. Formal linguistics is the study of the structures and processes of language, or how it works and is organized. Different approaches to formal linguistics include traditional or prescriptive, structural, and generative or transformational perspectives. Formal…

A discussion of diary studies, research on second language learning and teaching that uses student journals about the learning experience, defines the method, reviews a number of such studies, and examines the pros and cons of this approach. It is noted that diary studies are first-person case study research, a form of empirical (data-based)…

A cross-cultural study examined preschoolers' knowledge of elementary components of the writing system. Subjects were 41 Chinese and 44 American preschool students between the ages of 2 and 4. The students were presented with sets of cards depicting familiar objects, capitalized English letters, and Chinese characters and were asked to turn each…