It has been observed that there is a strong association between the inherent (lexical) aspect of verbs and the acquisition of tense-aspect morphology (the aspect hypothesis; Andersen & Shirai, 1994). To investigate why such an association is observed, this study examined the influence of inherent aspect and learners' first language (L1) on the…

It has been argued that extended exposure to naturalistic input provides L2 learners with more of an opportunity to converge of target morphosyntactic competence as compared to classroom-only environments, given that the former provide more positive evidence of less salient linguistic properties than the latter (e.g., Isabelli 2004). Implicitly,…

Two questions, what is a contrastive grammar, and what is comparable across linguistic systems, are touched on. The problem of the exact relationship of contrastive linguistics to linguistic theory is addressed. Two perhaps mutually exclusive views are discussed. See FL 508 197 for availability. (Author/RM)

Grammatical theories that rely exclusively on the categorical nature of constituents to determine their syntactic behavior encounter problems when dealing with cleft construction. The ungrammaticality of such constructions is indeed syntactic in nature and can be shown to derive from a general principle of universal grammar (UG), restricting the…

A discussion of the sources of certain language universals argues that adjective/noun constructions pattern similarly to genitive/noun and relative-noun constructions because they are typical diachronic sources for adjectivals, and that relatives and genitives have the same diachronic source and thus the same set of synchronic behavior. It is also…

Because of the syntactic differences between Spanish and Quechua, Quechua-speaking children must make major word order adjustments to learn the Peruvian Spanish taught in school. This study investigates whether the order or time sequence in which these changes are adopted reflects any general constraint, or is in any way predicted by a theory of…

The Final Act of the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe, linguistic problems in the way of cooperation, language differences and the potential for discriminatory practice, and the need for a new linguistic order are discussed. It is suggested that misunderstandings arising from differences of language reduce the ability of the 35…

This study attempts to bring some clarification into the concept of translation, especially into the theoretical problems presented by the difficulties of translation. The following aspects of the question are treated: (1) translation in the past and present, including the controversy over translation as an art or a science, the relevance of…

THE RESEARCH REPORTED IN THIS WORKING PAPER "STRONGLY INDICATES" THAT SEMANTIC UNIVERSALS HAVE BEEN DISCOVERED IN THE DOMAIN OF COLOR VOCABULARY. MOREOVER, THESE UNIVERSALS APPEAR TO BE RELATED TO THE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF ALL LANGUAGES IN A WAY THAT CAN PROPERLY BE TERMED EVOLUTIONARY. THE RESEARCH WAS CONDUCTED IN A GRADUATE…

This paper presents the historical background and practical applications of "Interlingua," a language system of common words derived from four control languages. Interlingua and "Esperanto," another artificial language, are compared, emphasizing that international, cross-cultural communication is best served, not by the…

This paper examines the semantic structure of antonyms on the basis of some examples taken from Romanian. Both grammatical and lexical antonyms are considered with a view toward grasping the correspondence and differences between the two classes. Representative examples illustrate the following conclusions: (1) the distinction between lexical and…

Social scientists have tended to neglect the relationship of language and "reality" in their formulations of mind, self, and society. Recently, however, a flurry of studies dealing with the congruence of language, cognition, and society has emerged. The initial sources of this concern may be traced to the rich tradition of the French…

Papers dealing with syntactic evidence in various languages for a higher performative sentence containing information about speaker, addressee and the speech act involved are reviewed and discussed. Arguments for this analysis have the form of showing that overt sentences behave in some way as if they were subordinate to a higher sentence…

Seeking out inter-language differences in the execution of a contrastive analysis is given priority over looking for manifestations of language universals. But unless a contrastive study is based upon an understanding of language universals and contains a set of instructions for how each language realizes them, the common ground for contrast can…

A definition of bilingualism can include speakers of different languages as well as those who speak several dialects or several sub-varieties of dialects in the same language. Most speakers are able to practice code-switching, whether it is from language to language or dialect to dialect, and the processes involved in such a capability may be the…