Examines Kamsa ritual language and describes a model (based on accessibility, formalization, and efficacy) for specifying its semiotic constitution. (EKN)

Reports a study in which university students and older nonstudents rated video transcripts of beginning public speaking students' first in-class speech for socio-intellectual status, aesthetic quality, and dynamism. On the basis of language, female speakers were rated higher on socio-intellectual status and aesthetic quality; males scored higher…

Presents the results of the first impact evaluation of the Local Language Literacy Project in the Southern Sudan, conducted in late 1980. (EKN)

Findings include (1) comprehension of 'this,''that,''here,' and 'there' depends on the role the comprehender plays in the conversation and (2) 'this' and 'here' are more difficult to comprehend that 'that' and 'there.' (EKN)

Argues that knowing how infants process speech is a prerequisite to any definition of linguistic experience and therefore, the discrimination paradigm does not provide a test for the effect of experience on infants' speech discrimination. Outlines conditions to be met in order to conclude an effect of experience. (EKN)

Investigates in an experimental setting the claim that young children have some knowledge of the rules of correspondence between language and reality which are central to propositional logic. (EKN)

Uses data from American Sign Language complement structures to show that a syntactic theory is needed to account for these in a formal way. Constraints on the forms of these structures are discussed in terms of syntactic constraints, rather than pragmatic or functional conditions. (Author/AMH)

Discusses experimental evidence which suggests that there may be greater right hemisphere involvement in language processing in bilinguals who acquire their second language late relative to their first language and in bilinguals who learn their second language in informal contexts. (EKN)

Examines the importance of context in the processing of negative statements and its influence on the latency components of negative sentences. In particular, tries to determine whether the longer reaction times to such sentences in experiments could be accounted for by their inappropriateness in the experimental settings. (Author/MES)

The relationship of object permanence and classification skills to receptive and expressive language development was investigated in infants. Object permanence, classification, and parent-child verbal interaction ratings were about equally related to language comprehension functioning, while permanence was more strongly related to language…

Research results indicated that children were able to use information from a number of sources in interpreting commands in which the relational terms were replaced by nonsense. Linguistic and nonlinguistic context and prior repetition presented constraints to children's responses. (Author/JB)

Investigated the effects of preferred play partnership on the conversational competence of preschool children. In general, preferred partners appeared to use language more effectively while playing. (Author/RH)

Presents study designed to investigate production of certain structures in French by native-speaking French Canadian children using the Bilingual Syntax Measure. Data show no difference in production for structures studied across ages; however, significant difference was found in extent to which structures were produced correctly. (Author/BK)

Notes the positive effects of assigning students tasks that require them to find samples of language that exemplify some general theoretical principles. (RL)

Examines research concerning the relationship between Black vernacular English and reading and writing. Makes recommendations for future research. (HTH)