Four distinct cases of the Russian imperfective-completive are examined, focusing on typical non-negated past-tense uses. One suggestion for improving the teaching of aspect is to draw simple parallels between English and Russian verb systems, both of which consist of the three aspectualities "completive,""habitual," and…

The property that determines which present infinitives can occur with subjectively used modals in German is identified. It is suggested that students be told to use modals subjectively with present infinitives only if the corresponding English sentence does not require the main verb to be progressive. (SW)

Compares data gathered for 5-year-olds in Montreal and Paris, and shows that the differences between the two communities are marginal in terms of the complexity of the acquisition process. Notable differences are observed in performance. (Text is in French.) (CDSH/CLK)

This article considers two specific problems which arise when seeking equivalent sentences in French and in English, that of the articles and of the forms of the verbs. Without determining the internal asymmetry of the two languages, the language learner will have a highly inaccurate picture of so-called equivalents. (CFM)

Speakers of Italian often have problems mastering Spanish because they erroneously believe its great similiarity to Italian makes it easy to learn. One of the fundamental problems is the lack of ability to choose the correct verb, "ser" or "estar," both equivalents of the Italian "essere." (Text is in Spanish.) (CFM)

Exercises exploiting the proximity of two French registers (vernacular and standard) are proposed as a means of solving interference problems in Acadians learning standard spoken French. (MSE)

Begins a discussion of the social mechanisms of linguistic change by describing the distinctions noted by T. Bynon (1977) between two different approaches to the study of linguistic change. Presents a model designed to explain why linguistic change seems commonly to take place in some social conditions but not in others. (SED)

Compares consonant mutations in English and Russian, and proposes a method for teaching these mutations to students of Russian as a second language. (CHK)

In July 1988 the Cornish Language Board adopted the orthography known as Kernewek Kemmyn. This shift in orthography brought about a need for new pedagogical materials including a new dictionary. In 1993 The Cornish Language Board published the "Gerlyver Kernewek Kemmyn." Since its publication, there has been a great deal of controversy concerning…

Objective measurement in translation evaluation is a relatively untouched area, especially at the level of the lexis. No thoroughly worked-out method has been put forward for the scientific evaluation of a translation. Yet few translators would question the potential value of such a device. Certainly translation evaluation is not limited to the…

Research supported by the Contrastive Semantics Project at the University of California, Berkeley. (DD)