Analyzes the syntactic structure of noun phrases and verb phrases in recipes and cookery articles in the French press and argues that the complexity of writing about cooking parallels the complexity of the cooking process itself, demonstrating how syntax can reflect function and meaning in a restricted text-type. (Author/MSE)

Considers why basic writers write in "phrases patched upon phrases." Examines how language is patterned and acquired to clarify a framework for teaching basic writers. States that speaking and writing, two different ways of organizing and presenting information, have different structures. Explores what cognitive psychology can say about…

Examines the in-class essay as written by university freshmen to assess the extent to which students use formulaic expressions to minimize the cognitive burden of generating a coherent and adequate answer. Results show that students made extensive use of formulaic expressions and shaped their answers to reflect the way the information had been…

Presents a contrastive statement of the potential that intonation has for differentiating identically worded syntactic patterns in English and German. Focuses on tonality, rehearses some well-known examples of tonality contrasts and introduces some less well-known ones as well, both of which provide examples of syntactic distinctions concealed in…

Reports on the continuing study of a congenitally acochlear child using an analytical focus on the prelinguistic vocalizations involving the description of syllable groupings within a prosodic hierarchy. Results indicate that audition is not necessary for the formation of prelinguistic phrasing, but hearing does influence certain aspects of…

Uses W.E.B. Du Bois' prophetic analysis of the color line problem to forecast the 21st century's language line problem, noting how language is central to the reproduction of racialized identities at school and in society for African American students. Juxtaposes language and cultural and social reproduction, hegemony, and race and articulates the…

Examines the distribution of word-final "/z/" in New Zealand English. The article identifies three main variants of word-final "/z/": a voiced variant, a partially devoiced variant, and a voiceless variant. Findings indicate that the voiceless variant is used more often by Maori than by Pakeha New Zealanders, and that young…

Contrasts English and Spanish passive voice patterns of the simple, continuous, and perfect tenses in order to find non-corresponding elements to predict difficulties in the acquisition of English and Spanish as a second language. Findings reveal a positive transfer between all the English and literal Spanish counterparts analyzed. (19 references)…

Explores the consequences of an implicit theoretical assumption for discourse analysis and argues that the traditional notion of verb as a simple word class is insufficient to characterize the full range of verbal expressions speakers routinely use in discourse. (26 references) (CK)

A study investigated perception of elliptical speech in an adult cochlear implant patient. Two experiments were conducted using sets of meaningful and anomalous English sentences: one set contained correct place of articulation cues, the other was transformed into elliptical speech. The patient and controls labeled the sentences as the same.…

Demonstrates how a technique involving contrastive rhetoric can help writing teachers and their students uncover and improve the overall rhetorical patterns in student writing. In addition, the use of a matrix that locates rhetorical patterns not followed in typical English patterns is described. (11 references) (GLR)

Analyzes the rightward movement of noun and prepositional phrases in the Early Old English poem "Beowulf." Evidence is provided for heavy noun phrase shift, with a characteristic major intonational boundary between the main verb and the postponed noun phrase, and preposition phrase extraposition, where the intonational boundary was much…

Examines Nigeria's language policies in terms of (1) the historical, sociolinguistic, political, educational, and ideological contexts in which they arose; (2) their impact on patterns of language choice and use in education and other aspects of life; and (3) their implications for the theory and practice of language planning. (51 references) (GLR)

Examined how Italian day-care teachers (N=5) spoke to young children and adjusted their language according to age and size of groups. It was found that teachers made both structural and functional modifications of language according to childrens' ages and the size of groups, with group size exerting a greater influence on the features of the…

Analysis of longitudinal data on the phonetic development of Swedish infants (N=4) from 1 through 17 months of age showed five distinct stages in early vocalization development: glottal; velar/uvular; vocalic; reduplicated consonant babbling; and variegated consonant babbling. Comparison with infants of differing linguistic backgrounds indicated…