From 1914 to 1919 El Cosmopolita--a Spanish language newspaper in Kansas City--served as an organ of ethnic unity and cultural reinforcement for the immigrant Hispanic community, carried news from Mexico, pushed the agenda of the Constitutionalists in the Mexican Revolution, and advertised the Anglo owner's Mexican businesses. (SV)

Investigated optimal two-, three-, four-, and five-test short forms of the Escala de Inteligencia Wechsler para Adultos (EIWA), the Spanish form of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (D. Wechsler, 1956). Results with 616 adults suggest that use of the EIWA should be limited to research and tracking cognitive changes over time. (SLD)

Analyzes Spanish second-language oral spontaneous data from adult native speakers of pro-drop and topic-drop languages. Results show that all Spanish nonnative grammars contain null subjects in both matrix and subordinate clauses. Many nonnative pronominal subjects do not have the same value as native Spanish subjects, and subject pronouns are…

Investigates the acquisition of a non-null-subject language (English) by speakers of two different null-subject languages (Spanish and Chinese) in light of recent research in theoretical syntax that shows that different syntactic mechanisms are at work in the expression of null subjects in the two languages.(Author/VWL)

Examines the earliest uses of verbal morphology in Spanish, an inflectional language. Stringent criteria were applied to data from two children to determine what inflections are used productively. Analyses reveal that there is little productive command of verbal morphology at early ages, and that subjects begin with a single form per verb.…

A video on telemarketing fraud was adapted for Mexican American older adults by adding a Spanish voiceover translated by a bilingual committee. Evaluation indicated that the translation was effective and the content communicated what was intended. Editing using digital technology was an efficient production technique. (SK)

Discusses problems and insights gained during the preparation of a bilingual dictionary of Spanish--a Romance and ultimately Indo-European language--and Swahili, a coastal Bantu language of the Niger-Congo stock of African languages. (Author/VWL)

Reviews a collection of high-quality books in Spanish which can help encourage Spanish-speaking children and adolescents to read. From creative books for the very young to the lives of famous women, to fantasies and animated traditional tales, these recently published books are designed to appeal to Spanish speakers and those wishing to learn…

Determines the pattern of errors in Spanish spelling. Analyzes and proposes a classification system for the errors made by children in the initial stages of the acquisition of spelling skills. Finds the diverse forms of only 20 Spanish words produces 36% of the spelling errors in Spanish; and substitution is the most frequent type of error. (RS)

Discusses the bare-noun phrase (NP) complementation pattern of the Spanish verb "tener" (have). Shows that the maximality of the complement NP is dependent upon three factors: (1) idiosyncratic valence requirements; (2) encyclopedic knowledge related to possession; and (3) contextualized semantic construal. (Author/VWL)

Analyzed article use in Spanish-speaking children with specific language impairment who are learning English as a Second Language. The surface hypothesis account of specific language impairment was evaluated in relation to the use of articles in these children. Language samples were obtained from 15 Spanish-speaking children with language…

Examines the language of the underworld, a language that includes slang spoken in prisons. This language functions not so much as a secret code whose primary purpose is to deceive but as a means by which members share an identity. Such speech fosters group solidarity, mutual recognition, prestige, and a sense of exclusiveness. (25 references) (CK)

Examines one university's tenure system, where unionization efforts produced a mildly revised tenure code. Despite this new tenure support, in the Spanish department, tenure and tenure-track appointments have significantly eroded, and the two-tiered system is destroying the discipline. Modern language professionals are urged to act on the…

Investigates an automatic method for Cross Language Information Retrieval (CLIR) that utilizes the multilingual Unified Medical Language System (UMLS) Metathesaurus to translate Spanish natural-language queries into English. Results indicate that for Spanish, the UMLS Metathesaurus-based CLIR method is at least equivalent to if not better than…

Structured interviews were conducted with bilingual educators in Southern New Mexico/West Texas. to determine these professionals' attitudes toward Spanish and English and to identify their public and private uses of both languages. Results indicate that while the educators continue to hold Spanish in high regard, their use in both public and…