Argues that the use of thanks in closing conversations reflects not only situational parameters but also local concerns of conversational management. Analysis of naturally occurring data from English and Italian service encounters suggests that cross-cultural differences in closings may be in part the result of differences in the preferred…

Syntagmatic relationships receive less attention than paradigmatic relationships in the development and study of index languages. Exposes misperceptions in linguistic characterization of syntagmatic relationships, and proposes the expansion to include conceptual syntagmatic relationships (CSRs), and characterizes CSRs to determine their role in…

Follow up to a previous study of the use of "por" and "para," this study analyzes "ser,""estar," and "haber" for lexical selection in relation to their functions and also for errors in tense, mode, aspect, agreement, and invented forms and uses of copula in simplified or reduced utterances. Data were from 20 oral examinations of Peace Corps…

Four experiments on the acquisition of binding are compared, two conducted with Italian-speaking children and two with English-speaking children. English-speaking children's mastery of pronominal binding is found to lag behind their mastery of binding for anaphors and R-expressions. (61 references) (Author/LB)

A review of a workbook used to teach Portuguese to Spanish-speaking students showed that, although contrastive analysis techniques can present some serious problems when applied to languages that are not closely related, they can be effectively used to teach a language that is close to the learner's native, or previously acquired, language. (seven…

Discusses the difficulties in learning the English verbs "do" and "make" by second-language learners, and compares the use of these verbs with the German "tun" and "machen" and the Dutch "doen" and "maken." It is suggested that to reach valid conclusions in contrastive linguistics, it is necessary to consider the diachronic dimension. (21…

The authors respond to comments on their article, "Back Channels Revisited." The current state of the art in acknowledgement token research is outlined with particular reference to the turn-initial token "yeah." Contrastive uses of acknowledgement tokens are described. (20 references) (LB)

Discusses the significance of causation/reasoning patterns in Korean. Presents crucial examples of acquisition errors of the patterns collected from students learning Korean as a foreign language and proposes an alternative explanation and analysis of these patterns.(Author/VWL)

Examined through slips of the tongue how tones are represented and processed when speaking Mandarin Chinese. With regard to sound movement errors, it was found that, although errors of segmental phonemes were fairly common, errors of tones were rare. Suggests that lexical tones in Mandarin Chinese are represented and processed differently from…

Comparison of the moribund dialects of Ocracoke Island, North Carolina, and Smith Island, Maryland, demonstrates that valuable insight into the patterning of variation and change in language death can be obtained by investigating moribund varieties of healthy languages. Discusses comparative investigation of two kinds of linguistic decay:…

Examines the realization of accent in Indian English (IE) compared to American English produced by teaching assistants in similar contexts. In teaching discourse, a lexically accented syllable is often realized in IE with a relative drop in frequency and without a reliable increase in amplitude. (Author/VWL)

Reexamines the interface between foreign language study and language awareness (LA) in the light of developments since LA was first proposed 25 years ago. (Author/VWL)

Tests the effect of Contrastive metalinguistic input (CMI) on acquisition of grammatical aspect in English by English teachers and student teachers who were able to recognize the difficult target language structures but who avoided production. Results are interpreted within a cognitive framework of second language acquisition as indication that…

Analyzed the argument linking of the commercial transaction frame in English, Russian, and Japanese. The commercial transaction frame is semantically complex, because there are two transfers in opposite directions (money goes from buyer to seller and goods from seller to buyer). English and Russian construe the commercial frame in essentially the…

Focuses on the differences between bilingual mixtures and creoles. In both types of language, elements and structures of two or more distinct languages are intermingled. By contrasting Nahuatl, spoken in Central Mexico, with Palenquero, a Spanish-based creole spoken near the Caribbean coast of Colombia, examines two components of language thought…