This article proposes an explanation for the use of resumptives in child language based on the feature of the nominal system. A cross-linguistic comparison shows no significant difference in resumptive use between child French, child English, and child Spanish. (50 references) (JL)

Details six major research findings regarding second-language acquisition, including transitional stages for acquiring syntax; fixed-order emergence of grammatical morphemes; language acquisition progress from unmarked to marked elements; first-language influence; rule-governed learner output; and learner access to input. (27 references) (CB)

Describes a process of morpho-syntactic language analysis for information retrieval. Tree Structured Analytics (TSA) used for text representation is summarized; the matching process developed for such structures is outlined with an example appended; and experiments carried out to evaluate the effectiveness of TSA matching are discussed. (26…

This case study describes an adolescent with multiple articulation errors. Comparison with previous studies found this individual demonstrated longer phrase durations and more variability than either normally articulating or speech-disordered and language-disordered children. Interaction between syntactic and articulatory performance was also…

One possible criticism of formal syntactic theory is that it is based on a philosophy and a set of metaphors that appear superseded even in the physical sciences where they were developed. Borrowing again from the physical sciences, this paper argues for linguistic theory with a philosophical basis in interrelatedness. (39 references) (Author/VWL)

Tests and confirms hypothesis that a four-stage process exists in the understanding and use of synonyms, antonyms, and tautologies in children ages three to six. The results of this study challenge widely held theories on cognitive development. (45 references) (LET)

Argues that the data used to claim that morphosyntactic development of Italian-speaking children are inconsistent with nativist, parameter-setting models of language development is irrelevant to the specific hypothesis being evaluated. (25 references) (JL)

Samples of the language used by 4 children were recorded longitudinally between 1.5 and 3 years of age. Children's expressions of motion were categorized into expressions involving a source, path, or goal of motion. There were developmental changes, including an increase in the use of words relating to goals as children grew older. (BC)

Demonstrates how syntactic constraints interact in the interpretation of Verb Phrase inversion. Specifically, it is shown that the auxiliary "be" is unique among auxiliary verbs in allowing VP inversion. (38 references) (VWL)

Analysis middle constructions in English, accounting for their key syntactic and semantic properties. The analysis rests on the observation that there are certain similarities between middle, "tough," and recipe-context null-object constructions. (55 references) (VWL)

Outlines a way of conceiving the area of language identified by case or grammatical relation that does not rely on the specification of universal inventory. The alternative proposes the existence of principles of intelligence, which in their operation in language, yield the language performance that is interpreted as ROLES. (Contains 80…

Provides an acoustic profile of the prosody of right-dislocations in French, using the CECIL computer hardware and software package to analyze 28 right-dislocations occurring in a corpus of natural French discourse. It was found that, although right-dislocations appear to fulfill various functional roles in discourse, no correlation appears…

Presents a discourse-functional account of English inversion, based on an examination of a large corpus of naturally occurring tokens. It is argued that inversion serves an information-packaging function and that felicitous inversion depends on the relative discourse-familiarity of the information represented by the preposed and postposed…

This study of 213 high school and 211 postsecondary students with deafness found that limited syntactic competence may limit a reader's ability to apply vocabulary skills for reading comprehension. Repeated Reading is described as a promising strategy for developing syntactic competence. (JDD)

Analyzes Scientific English for nonnative speakers, in particular Italians, and points out the principal areas of difficulty. (CFM)