Recent knowledge about the system of gender assignment in French is examined to suggest theoretical reasons why English speakers are so rarely successful in mastering the French gender assignment system for inanimate nouns. Morphological, phonetic, and semantic rules shed light on the system. (14 references) (Author/LB)

Describes a collaborative, reuse hypertext system, called MUCH (Many Using and Creating Hypertext). The novel browsing and retrieval characteristics of the system are based on a semantic net connecting documents, thesauri, and discussions. Word patterns are documented for reuse, creating and reorganizing network traversal according to user…

Analyzed longitudinal data from 28-year-old Cambodian man who, despite instruction in English-as-Second-Language and residence in English-speaking community, used form "has" for both possessives (PO) and existentials (EX). Shared semantic properties of PO/EX, together with syntactic, pragmatic, perceptual characteristics of native…

Discusses how culture and civilization are profoundly affected by the advent of new forms of media. Describes relevant theories by various cultural critics. Analyzes these theories of culture and provides a synthesis of their implications. (HB)

Two experiments compared the abilities of third and sixth graders and adults to recognize sarcasm given context and intonation cues. Children recognized sarcasm only when given a speaker's sarcastic intonation cue, even when context strongly indicated a nonliteral interpretation. (BC)

Describes a new method for automatic indexing and retrieval called latent semantic indexing (LSI). Problems with matching query words with document words in term-based information retrieval systems are discussed, semantic structure is examined, singular value decomposition (SVD) is explained, and the mathematics underlying the SVD model is…

Results indicate that curvilinear trend in children's understanding of word "big" is not obtained in all stimulus contexts. This suggests that meaning and use of "big" is complex, and may not refer simply to larger objects in a set. Proposes that meaning of "big" constitutes a dynamic system driven by many perceptual,…

Students, ages 12, 15, 18, and 23 (n=60 per group), wrote definitions for 16 abstract nouns. Responses were analyzed for Aristotelian style. There was an increasing tendency for students to mention the appropriate category to which a word belongs, core features of the word, and subtle aspects of meaning. (DB)

Examines the need for a new perspective in research on young children's writing development, one which identifies writing as a language process in which children construct meaning. Presents an example of a linguistic analysis of a child's writing. Discusses the implications for early-childhood educators of a text-focused approach to studying…

Explores the acquisition process of relative clauses in Japanese and Korean. Examines the issue of whether Korean "kes" and Japanese "no" found in Korean and Japanese relative clauses are each a complementizer or a head noun.(Author/VWL)

Explores two Mandarin-speaking children's ability to refer to the past in mother-child conversation. The approach encompasses morphosyntactic, semantic, and discourse-pragmatic perspectives. Results show that the children tend to refer to immediate past spontaneously, but rely heavily on elicitation when referring to earlier past. (Author/VWL)

Language characteristics of 11 children (ages 6-8) with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and 11 typically developing children were compared for semantic, syntactic, and pragmatic language skills. Findings indicated no differences on receptive vocabulary, but children with ADHD performed worse on tests of expressive speech and…

Describes an exercise in lexical analysis, involving verbs of sound in English and Spanish. The aim of the exercise is to enable students to discover underlying patterns of meaning that are representative of lexical-conceptual structure. (Author/VL)

Helps teacher and students investigate the history and hidden meanings of the word "tribe." Pretests and posttests gauge students' knowledge and assumptions about the word. Discusses what is wrong with the word, why it is used so often if it is so flawed, and common arguments for its continued. Sidebars present resources and a discussion…

Describes a multimedia approach to solving image retrieval problems. Presents the idea of a media agent, which can automatically collect semantic descriptions of multimedia data into a personal media database on behalf of a particular user whenever and wherever he/she accesses these multimedia data. Discusses implementation and applications of the…