A question answering system which permits a computer-assisted instruction (CAI) student greater initiative in the variety of questions he can ask is described. A method is presented to represent the dynamic processes of a subject matter area by augmented finite state automata, which permits efficient inferencing about dynamic processes and…

The language a child learns from and attends to is the speech of significant persons in his world, addressed to each other and to him. As the child gradually participates in this social interaction he learns communicative competence, i.e., the nonconscious, tacit knowledge that underlies speech behavior--knowledge of both the language and the…

This study reports a portion of a series of investigations designed to determine to what extent credibility scales can be generalized. The investigation data was collected in six phases, representing six subject populations. All of the subjects were either college students or non-student adults. Subjects were asked to respond to one of four…

This paper raises the question of the relationship between Russian verbs of motion and verbal aspect, and presents a discussion concerning the typology of motion verbs with respect to aspect. After establishing terminology and presenting the corpus of verbs considered to be verbs of motion, the authors discuss the traditional criteria for…

Three hypotheses gave direction to this study conducted with a stratified random sample of fourth grade students. The chief purpose was exploration of the relationship between a subject's understanding of conjunctions and his reading comprehension. Another purpose was to explore the difference in the difficulty of various conjunctions. The third…

Book 4 of "The Language of Man" series contains articles which deal with semantics, levels of language (including informal, formal and technical language, jargon, and gobbledygook), the hidden persuaders (advertising of merchandise and political candidates), and communications of the future (including the computer and other mass media now being…

The syntactic properties of the child's language are studied. Within the framework of transformational grammar, the rules of syntax can be divided into three types: base- or phrase-structure rules, transformational rules, and morphological rules. Each of these rules is discussed. It is stated that the one process that appears to characterize each…

SUPERIOR STUDENTS IN RURAL HIGH SCHOOLS WERE GIVEN PROGRAMED INSTRUCTION IN SELECTED SUBJECT AREAS TO DETERMINE IF A NONDIRECTIVE METHOD OF DIFFUSING AN INNOVATION, LIKE PROGRAMED INSTRUCTION, WAS APPROPRIATE FOR DISSEMINATION IN A RURAL ENVIRONMENT. THE EFFECTS OF THE COOPERATIVE DEMONSTRATION PROJECT ON STUDENTS, PARENTS, TEACHERS, AND HIGH…

This paper attempts to illustrate with concrete data that riddles serve as a didactic device to sharpen the wits of young children. The riddle is described as a verbal routine which adapts the interrogative system of a speech community to purposes of play. Riddles concerning motion or locomotion of animals, machines and toys were collected in a…

It has been suggested that good readers make better use of semantic/syntactic information and use relatively less graphic information than do poor readers. To test these hypotheses, minor visual alterations were inserted in words in connected text. Fifteen good and 15 poor readers at the fourth-grade level read two of the altered Passages orally.…

Examines some aspects of syntactic and semantic variation in the Arizona Tewa speech community, including the speech community members' perception of variation, with a view to exploring the implications of this variation for the study of language change and the anthropological study of language structure. (AM)

Attempts to suggest a set of verbal labels which could be used to describe occupational characteristics, as perceived by grade 9 students, and to group these labels into parsimonious clusters. Also obtains a set of bipolar-adjective scales for use in measuring perceptions of occupational characteristics. (Author/RK)

Critically examines papers by Wellman and Estes, Olson and Torrance, and Hall and Nagy. (AEW)

Two experiments indicating that children's linguistic generalizational biases change from a semantically-based system to a syntactical-structural system provide evidence for a semantic-relational bias in children's early grammars and support the notion that children's generalizational biases shift from a semantic-relational basis to a…

Outlines an approach to using the translation of French songs in English as an effective and enjoyable learning activity for students of French. Steps include: respecting rhythms; finding and respecting meaning; respecting style; respecting sound; respecting your choice of intended listeners; and respecting the original version. (CB)