A review of the development and interaction of research involving second language contrastive analysis, error analysis, and interlanguage demonstrates how different assumptions and theoretical preconceptions have affected the results of such research, and the degree to which the research areas have drawn on the other areas. (39 references) (CB)

Possible developmental asynchrony in children with specific language impairment (SLI) was investigated by comparing the development of temporal expressions of past reference in two linguistic domains in three- to five-year-olds. Results of the SLI children's performance suggest direct evidence for asynchronous language development. (Contains 40…

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)

An instructional technique that enlisted natural language processes by ensuring that grammatical markers made semantic sense was examined to determine its usefulness in helping adult Anglophone classroom learners to make more accurate online aspectual choices in past tense oral narrative. (32 references) (LB)

Secondary resultatives exist in Italian and English, where both languages exhibit freedom with PP resultatives but semantic restrictions with AP resultatives (strongly in Italian and weakly in English). This contrast between freedom and restrictions is mirrored in the fact that AP arguments in postobject position as sisters to V are marked in both…

The role of word class and gender during lexical access in language production was studied. The results indicated a distinction between prelexical (word class) and postlexical (gender) features, a distinction that could most naturally be implemented in a parallel-interactive processing network. (33 references) (Author/LB)

Contrasts symmetrical and asymmetrical features of word order in Mandarin and English, focusing on the preverbal and postverbal positional contrast, and revealing several cognitive sources for similarities between the two languages. (53 references) (CB)

Active/agentive case markings are argued to be the products of successive diachronic developments, each individually motivated. Several factors obscure the motivations, including cross-linguistic differences in detail, shifts of defining features over time, grammaticization, and lexicalization. Explanation of case-systems requires understanding of…

Summarizes some of the syntactic differences between English and Japanese in such areas as word order, wh-movement, subject-auxiliary inversion, expletives, multiple subject constructions, scrambling, and modifiable pro-forms in Japanese. (26 references) (CB)

Critiques the standard explanation of German equivalents for "when" presented in textbooks (wann, wenn, als). Analysis of the English-language evidence indicates that "when" is frequently a relative pronoun in descriptions and must be rendered as a relative pronoun in German. The case is made for "wo" as a practical choice, along with "da" or…

Presents fine-grained longitudinal analyses of one child's language production over the period of change from single to multiword utterances. (Author/VWL)

Examines how the concept of reference, or point of view, operates in the study of aspectual divergence in English and French and to what extent an analysis of this notion can contribute to developing translation strategies. (MSE)

Analysis of English articles use patterns found the definite article (DA) used far less than in other European languages. Generic DA use is rare in English, generally only used where the head noun has already been referred to or is contextually unique. Otherwise, the indefinite article, a possessive, or plural of the noun without an article must…

Looks at resultative constructions in Korean and English and shows that their basic features follow from general properties of prediction and argument saturation. The analysis is formulated in the framework of head-driven phrase structure grammar (HPSG). (Author/VWL)

Two experiments examined the proposition that transfer effects between English and Italian translations are restricted to words from the same lexical paradigm. The experiments involved standard repetition priming, a traditional laboratory procedure, and a comparative analysis of the impact of high-frequency and low-frequency words in one language…