This book focuses on the nature and development of knowledge concerning grammar and the meanings coded by grammar. This knowledge is inferred from performance, from sentences and the settings in which they are spoken, and from signs of comprehension or incomprehension of sentences by preschool children. The first two stages of linguistic…

The major hypothesis tested in this study was that low and average ability subjects could use the strategy of root analysis if instruction could be designed so as to compensate for individual weaknesses. Eighty-eight sixth grade middle class subjects were randomly assigned to self-instructional treatments to learn the root analysis strategy.…

Strategies proposed in this study for teaching composition at the secondary level incorporated an expanded concept of semantics. A survey of semantic developments indicated that a composition program stressing the interrelationship of syntax, semantics, and pragmatics in a communication situation was a desideratum. As an initial procedure, the…

Two studies were made of the attitudes of prospective white teachers toward inner-city schools. The first study investigated whether 250 prospective white teachers from a major teacher training institution held more positive attitudes toward suburban or inner-city schools. Osgood's Semantic Differential (SD) revealed that the subjects held…

If in reading a sentence a reader finds something unfamiliar in lexical meaning or grammatical structures, the meaning of the written material may be ambiguous to him. Sometimes the context will help to clarify the meaning of an unfamiliar element, but often it won't. Understanding what is read involves not only the process of reasoning, but also…

A technique for displaying and analyzing Osgood's Semantic Differential data in three -dimensional semantic space is described. The technique employs a square board, with equidistant drilled holes, in which are placed dowels of various lengths combined with labels of different shapes. Studies have found 3 major factors (Evaluation, Activity, and…

The paper shows informally how model-theoretical semantics may be used by a computer to give a straight-forward analysis of the meaning of children's language. This approach to semantics grows out of the main thrust of work in mathematical logic. It is discussed in the framework of generative grammar and is based on the application of the…

The language of East Germany has undergone distinct semantic change since the arrival of the Soviet occupation forces in 1945, especially in the areas of politics, philosophy, and social organization. This is evident in governmental publications and in the shortwave transmissions of the official broadcasting station. Four sources of the change can…

Through the processes of communication, we establish and maintain or disrupt relationships. Understanding others and being understood involves a cooperative effort toward achieving a commonality of meaning, and effectiveness in our relationships requires a genuine knowledge of and skill in communicating interpersonally. This book is designed to…

A project undertaken to advance the systematic analysis of public responses, attitudes, opinions, preferences, and values relating to the environment is discussed in this report, the seventh in a series of eight. The reports fall into two general categories: five describe and compare responses to representative milieus in New York, Boston,…

This ten chapter book is designed to provide high school students with an understanding of basic communication processes. The first five chapters include discussions of language development, function, and acquisition in relation to both human and non-human communication. The sixth chapter contains specimen linguistic analyses of speech and…

This book discusses various approaches to the teaching of composition from classical and contemporary sources. It is intended to give a comprehensive coverage of the various kinds of oral and written themes students are expected to create in college and high school. The book can be used as a basic text in college composition and rhetoric, for…

Syntactic and semantic cueing were examined as used in oral reading by 30 college freshmen, half of whom were higher in vocabulary on the Nelson-Denny Reading Test and half of whom were higher in comprehension scores on the same test. The subjects were selected from 168 freshmen, all of whom were poor readers and spoke predominantly English. All…

The three concerns of this study were: (1) the ability of students in grades seven, nine, and eleven to recognize ambiguity in sentences at the lexical, surface structural, and underlying structural levels; (2) the relative difficulty of perceiving ambiguity at each of these levels as determined by differential processing times; and (3) the…

Some 26 abstracts of papers presented at the Conference are compiled in this report. Topics include papers by noted specialists on: (1) programed language instruction (2) Milivox, (3) individualized instruction, (4) Spanish phonetics, (5) linguistic analysis, (6) semantics, (7) the comparative in English, (8) inflectional and derivational…