Longitudinal observations of six congenitally deaf children (1-4 years old) with hearing parents were performed to determine the structure of semantic relation representation. Ss' semantic relation phrases were analyzed in terms of case relations. Cases were found to be distinguishable from each other in terms of production probability. Two…

This research examines how semantic information influences syntactic parsing decisions during sentence processing. In the first experiment, subjects were presented lexical strings having syntactically identical surface structures but with two possible underlying structures: "The children taught by the Berlitz method," and "The…

Two groups of preschoolers and one of young grade-schoolers were tested for their comprehension of presuppositions and negation in complex syntax. Four types of sentences were presented: affirmative and negative versions of sentences with factive main predicates (which presuppose the truth of the proposition of the complement clause) and with…

THIS DOCUMENT COMPRISES THE ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF THE INTRODUCTION AND CONCLUSION TO A SELECTION OF WRITINGS COMPILED AND EDITED BY M.M. GUXMAN--"VOPROSY FORMIROVANIJA I RAZVITIJA NACIONAL'NYX JAZYKOV (PROBLEMS OF THE FORMATION AND DEVELOPMENT OF NATIONAL LANGUAGES)," MOSCOW, 1960. GUXMAN'S VOLUME IS A COLLECTION OF DETAILED STUDIES OF LANGUAGES…

THE PURPOSE OF THIS RESEARCH WAS TO EXPLORE SOME OF THE VARIABLES THAT INFLUENCE INTRAINDIVIDUAL PHONETIC VARIATION IN CERTAIN ASPECTS OF AMERICAN ENGLISH SPEECH. FORTY COLLEGE STUDENTS PARTICIPATED IN THE EXPERIMENT. EACH PERFORMED TWO TASKS--(1) READING ALOUD WORDS (16 IN EACH OF FIVE CATEGORIES) FROM FLASHCARDS AS PART OF AN OSTENSIBLE LEARNING…

SINCE LINGUISTS HAVE ONLY RECENTLY TURNED FROM GRAMMATICAL ANALYSIS TO CONSIDER THE ROLE OF LANGUAGE IN SOCIETY, THE STUDY OF MODERNIZATION HAS BEEN LEFT LARGELY TO SOCIAL SCIENTISTS WHO CAN HARDLY BE EXPECTED TO DEAL WITH LINGUISTIC QUESTIONS. LANGUAGE PROBLEMS, HOWEVER, ARE KNOWN TO PLAGUE DEVELOPING SOCIETIES. IN POST-INDEPENDENCE INDIA,…

THE AUTHOR FEELS THAT TO APPROACH CHILD LANGUAGE TRANSFORMATIONALLY IS TO USE A TECHNIQUE SUITED TO PROVIDING ADDITIONAL INSIGHT INTO A WELL-KNOWN LANGUAGE FOR TREATING AN UNKNOWN, OR AT BEST LITTLE KNOWN LANGUAGE. SHE MAKES THE FOLLOWING CRITICISMS OF TRANSFORMATIONAL ANALYSIS OF CHILD LANGUAGE--(1) NOTHING CAN BE DIRECTLY INFERRED WITH REGARD TO…

Children who learn a dialect differ in pronunciation, syntax, or both from children who learn standard English. It has been assumed that dialectal differences contribute to difficulties in learning to read. Another question is whether a disadvantaged child who speaks a dialect is exposed to a language environment rich enough for him to make normal…

To measure the effectiveness of an intervention program of language development, it is necessary to understand childrens' knowledge and use of grammatical structures. In both standard and dialectal English, grammar rules are learned without formal instruction for forming the negative, interrogative, and other parts of speech. A mental…

This study was designed to answer two questions: Will the percentage of utility for a group of phonic generalizations in a college-level vocabulary sample be similar to generalizations in a primary-level sample? Will qualitative differences in the types of phonic generalizations be apparent? A 1,495-word sample was selected from George Feinstein's…

In order to provide a critical test of a proposed procedure for explaining and validating a rules theory, this paper examines four items of communications research which make claims regarding the generality and practical necessity of the empirical relationships they investigate. The paper demonstrates the utility of the procedure for rigorously…

This paper explores the process of writing from several perspectives, as a first step toward a more comprehensive theory. The first perspective sees writing as a communicative act. The observation that to write is to communicate, though commonplace, has major and sometimes surprising implications for a theory of writing. It forces a focus on the…

Current views both of reading and of understanding spoken language conceptualize the process of deriving meaning as similar to hypothesis testing. The listener or reader is seen as selecting whatever information is required to confirm the hypothesized meaning. In the present study, 60 children (12 each in grades four through eight) reworded…

One characteristic of Japanese pitch accent is that there is the so-called "flat" accent, which has no fall or nucleus. This type of accent exists not only in Standard Japanese but in many dialects, including Kyoto. But the flat types are different in the Tokyo and Kyoto dialects. In the Tokyo dialect, the first syllable always has a low…

English tenses are discussed in terms of a unique ordering of three moments of time: the moment of speech, the moment of the event and the reference point. The aims of the paper are to: (1) show the usefulness of introducing the concept of reference point in tense analysis, (2) provide an account of how to construe reference points semantically,…