The nature of case-coding strategies for relative clause formation is explained, focusing on why languages use such strategies and the forms such strategies can take. Language-specific illustration in Modern Welsh is provided to support proposed redefinitions of hierarchy and case-coding strategies. (22 references) (Author/CB)

Discusses the motivation for Universal Grammar (UG), as assumed in the principles and parameters framework of generative grammar (Chomsky, 1981), focusing on the logical problem of first-language acquisition and the potential role of UG in second-language acquisition. Recent experimental research regarding the second-language status of the…

John Schumann and colleagues have argued for a neurobiological perspective on language acquisition that denies a role for a specifically linguistic mental module of the sort proposed by, for example, N. Chomsky (1986). This report challenges this perspective by offering evidence that such a mental module must be involved in the acquisition of…

Provides a definition of a conversation and states that all conversations are either spontaneous or specific. Each conversational situation consists of a text, nonverbal communication, and turn taking. Any conversation contains an opening preparation, orientation, topic or object, conclusion, and end. A short bibliography is provided. (25…

Explains the Greenbergian universals of modifier and adposition ordering as accidental side effects of diachronic derivation. An argument is made that disparate diachronic processes can conspire to give the effect of synchronic universals. For example, the ordering of modifiers may result from their generation by means of binding anaphor strategy.…

Outlines a way of conceiving the area of language identified by case or grammatical relation that does not rely on the specification of universal inventory. The alternative proposes the existence of principles of intelligence, which in their operation in language, yield the language performance that is interpreted as ROLES. (Contains 80…

Offers an interview with noted linguist Noam Chomsky, who shares his thoughts about language, language development, and reading. (SR)

Discusses the strategies that a child might employ during the one-word stage in constructing an early lexicon. An attempt is made to shed light on some strategies by analyzing the lexical and phonological development of two children who seem to take opposite approaches. (Author/JL)

Discusses a model for pragmatics instruction in the Spanish foreign language classroom. The model helps activate universal pragmatic rules for communication. (Author/VWL)

Researchers who assume that Universal Grammar (UG) plays a role in second language (L2) acquisition are still debating whether L2 learners have access to UG in its entirety (the Full Access hypothesis; e.g. Schwartz and Sprouse, 1994; 1996; White, 1989; 2003) or only to those aspects of UG that are instantiated in their first language (L1) grammar…

It is proposed here that second language learners can acquire a system of reflexive binding, both local and long-distance, that is different from that found in their native language, and individual subject data are offered to support this claim. First, some general properties of the syntactic behavior of reflexives and reflexive constructions are…

An organizing framework is presented that can help integrate the large mass of apparently disparate work on written language. The starting point of the paper was collections of articles of reading, writing, and literacy, which seemed not to have a conceptual framework. Ways are discussed that knowledge from linguistics as an academic discipline…

It is proposed that there are cultural universals in the use of language and that these universals have implications for language acquisition. The model rests on three hypotheses: (1) there are culturally universal tendencies in the linguistic marking of four dimensions of language (epistemic and affective stances, social acts, social activities,…

Gaps in the morphological systems of languages are discussed, with specific examples from English, Russian, Arabic, and Hungarian. (RM)

The comparative method is not a single method of reconstruction but a complex set of procedures based on different assumptions and hypotheses about language change. The paper examines sound-meaning relationships, traditions, phonetic distinctions and the sets of oppositions, & regularity and irreversibility of phonetic change in the discussion.…