The idea is explored that the Subset Principle is available to first language learners but not to second language learners, and that this difference is responsible at least in part, for the fossilization that seems to be characteristic of second language acquisition. Several experiments are reviewed where it has been concluded that the parameter…

Case studies provide detailed comparisons, arranged alphabetically by title for ease of reference, of 26 problems in Modern English grammar, from both the old grammar (OG) and new grammar (NG) viewpoints. This A-Z approach juxtaposes contributions made by OG and NG to the description of Modern English grammar. Part I surveys large OG and NG…

The relationship between linguistic types and the valence of operators on the genotype level of Applicative Universal Grammar (AUG) is examined. Assuming that the "t" and "s" types may be treated as zero-place operators, a relationship is found between the valence of an operator and its genotype, which explains the difference…

This is an attempt at a comprehensive bibliography of materials relevant to the Lakota (Teton Dakota or Teton Sioux) language, with comments for most items. It covers the period 1887-1990, and is intended to supplement an earlier bibliography (One Hundred Years of Lakota Linguistics (1887-1987)), published in "Kansas Working Papers in…

An analysis of semantically ergative languages begins with a description of the essential results of research on ergativity to date, and an outline of the assumptions and conceptual apparatus on which the analysis is based. Subsequently, data from 20 Daghestanian languages, primarily Archi, are examined for evidence of the syntactic features of…

Basil Bernstein's research on the sociology of language indicates that he views language as both subjective and objective. Subjectively, it structures an individual's intentions and thought processes; objectively, it preserves and makes public the store of knowledge of human society. The sharing of language is the basic way in which the objective…

Two experiments investigated how children (aged 6-8) acquire knowledge of the direct and the indirect object in terms of linguistic marking. The experiments were designed to test the proposition that children should expect a marked linguistic form to be the indirect object. (GO)

Examines the level of explanatory adequacy outlined by Chomsky's theory of transformational grammar and finds it inadequate. (CK)

The relationship of the word "only," one of a class of words known as scalar particles, focus adverbs, focus inducers, or focus-sensitive particles, with the "focus" of the sentence is examined. It is suggested, based on analysis of discourse structure, that this "association with focus" is not an inherent property of…

The notions of categorical selection (c-selection) and semantic selection (s-selection) as outlined in recent research on generative grammar are discussed. The first section addresses the type of selectional constraint imposed on English small clauses (e.g., "John considers [Mary smart]"). In the second section, it is suggested that the constraint…

A purely segmental or suprasegmental analysis of vowel harmony in Arabic is inadequate because it leaves some questions unanswered. An approach based primarily on the metrical structure of the utterance and addressing an independent structural category, the "foot" of the word, that phonological rules may refer to, is preferred,…

For at least 90 years there have been contributions to onomastics from the fields of social psychology and personality. These contributions have included work on various types of names, such as ambiguous, alias, hypocoristic, junior, nickname, surname, and unique name. Other research has focused on the structure of names, style of usage, and style…

Nursery school children were presented with a simple, miniature artificial language in one of three conditions in a study of language acquisition. (SBT)

An examination is made of the f o, or "pitch," contours which underly the five tones of Thai in an effort to describe their shapes and compare these descriptions with those of earlier phonetic accounts of the tones. (Author/RM)