The motives for the integration of French elements into Lubumbashi Swahili are investigated. Based on an analysis of three different texts, it is argued that the mixing process is carefully regulated and controlled to serve several communicative functions. (18 references) (Author/LB)

A short outline is provided of former Soviet language policy and how linguistic structures of the Russian language should be imposed on other languages of the empire. The development is illustrated by tendencies in the structure of present-day Estonian. (five references) (JL)

Investigates the relationship between children's single word utterances and maternal single-word utterances expressing similar communicative intents in 24 Hebrew-speaking dyads (the children were aged about 1; 6). Results suggest that children's single-word utterances are similar to, and probably learned from, single-word utterances of caretakers…

Studied interpretation of local anaphor "sjalfan sig," the long-distance anaphor "sig," and pronouns in 55 Icelandic-speaking children and 10 adult controls. Results support an approach to binding that distinguishes the syntactic use of sig from its logophoric use and treats sig as a pronominal both in its internal structure…

Reviews Malta's history with respect to language policy and adult literacy. The role that Maltese and English languages play in the country's culture and the nature of adult literacy programs for these languages are outlined. Other topics include emigration, colonialism, bureaucratic centralization, and female participation. (Contains 28…

Results of a study of language ability from the first census in the republic of Vanuatu in Melanesia are reported. They show that it is necessary to consider a wide range of demographic information to be able to estimate how many people speak a particular vernacular. (Contains 12 references.) (Author/LB)

Demonstrates that the acquisition of English reflexives by Chinese, Japanese, and Korean learners is not a valid test for parameter resetting in second-language learning, because English reflexives share the same setting as phrasal reflexives in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. (23 references) (MDM)

Study looks at whether Spanish-speaking learners of Brazilian Portuguese as a foreign language demonstrates advantage or disadvantage in acquisition of semi-open vowels e and o. To research the question, eight students enrolled in first-year Portuguese were given a listening discrimination test composed of 18 minimal pairs to determine the extent…

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…

Evaluated the development of temporal location within a cross-linguistic experimental design. The research focused on the transition from a temporal system based on absolute temporal relations involving speech time and event time to a more complex system involving relative temporal relationships and reference time. (48 references) (JL)

Suggests that the study of Chinese films should be more than just merely an adjunct to Chinese literature studies but an analysis of Chinese literary adaptation in terms of the aesthetic, narrative, intellectual, and political concerns of the period in which the film adaptation was made. (six references) (CB)

Exploration of and comparisons between structural, stylistic, and linguistic similarities and differences in two modern Chinese semiautobiographical texts points out both authors' methods for depicting the ironies within their socio-political and ideological conditions. (19 references) (CB)

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…

Code-switching (CS) patterns of bilingual English-Mandarin speakers underwent structural and functional analysis to reveal the interrelationship between form and function in bilingual CS discourse. Results indicate that certain syntactic forms are utilized to express certain functions in CS discourse and that interlocutor participation helps…

Discusses ergative case marking system in Anatolian branch of Indo-European in which neuters inflect ergatively and common-gender nouns inflect accusatively. Development from instrumental to ergative that occurred in prehistory of Gorokan languages of Papua New Guinea is also discussed. It is suggested that this process is a general mechanism for…