Examines imperatives regarding their different construction forms as well as the syntactic and pragmatic features of the imperative stem that influence the form and meaning of the tag attached to it. The conclusion is drawn that the imperative tag cannot be best analyzed as merely a frozen expression. (GLR)

Briefly discusses previous accounts of the English tense system and proposes another system in which verbs are divided into the following subcategories: 1) timelessness; 2) present; 3) past; 4) future. Examples of each subcategory are cited for the English as a second language teacher. A reference list of 41 citations is included. (Author/LMO)

A systematic analysis of the French interrogative focuses on the distinction between the syntactic processes (identification of question words, interrogative phrase preposing, and rules of question formation) and phonological processes (intonation patterns) that characterize questions in French. (Author/MSE)

Examines the notion of "head" in syntax and the extent to which it extends to morphology in English, and discusses the notion of headedness and percolation. The argument is made that percolation in English does not work, casting doubt on the notion of head in morphology. (34 references) (GLR)

Reviews the properties and consequences of the Principle of Contrast. It is argued that this principle accounts for the acquisition of irregular forms in morphology and that it plays a crucial role in the acquisition of allomorphy. (62 references) (GLR)

Discusses the automatic construction of abstracts from the texts of documents. Automatic sentence extraction is examined, including syntactic criteria and semantic relational criteria; textual cohesion is discussed, including the recognition of anaphors and noun phrases; text structure is addressed; and the concept of abstract-frames is described.…

Investigates whether patient animacy affected the acquisition of the passive construction of syntax of 32 children aged two-five years. Results indicate that children who were taught the passive with animate patients produced more passives in the teaching phase than did comparable children who received inanimate patients. (RJC)

Presents examples of how children acquire language through the principles-and-parameters model, a highly modular system in which different theories interact so that only permissible sequences arise, and highlights research on Spanish syntax and semantics. (136 references) (CB)

The study of four autistic children, aged six-nine, found support for the hypothesis that persistent pronominal errors by autistic children can be explained by failure to observe pronouns in speech addressed to another person, an aspect of language development in normal children. (Author/DB)

Explores how an anthropological perspective provides a necessary basis for an account of several aspects of the language acquisition process. Discussion focuses on how the patterns of development in phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics appear to be profoundly influenced by the range of adult language structures. (Author/CB)

This paper examines the syntax of imperative sentences in languages in which imperative verbs have distinctive morphology. Imperative verbs with distinctive morphology either have a distinctive syntax (Modern Greek, Spanish) or distribute like other verbs (Serbo-Croatian, Ancient Greek). The contrast follows from properties of the root…

Argues that the late acquisition of the third-person singular agreement affix /-s/ in second-language learners of English is the result of a syntactic configuration that makes the ending appear ungrammatical to the learner of English while allowing agreement inflection to appear when the target language has a more robust agreement model, as in the…

This study of early word learning focused on the status of object words in early vocabularies. Fourteen children were followed from nine months to two years of age, and monthly vocabulary growth was analyzed. Results indicated that object words represented approximately one-third, on average, of the different words the children learned. (TJQ)

Examined thematic and grammatical role categories accessible to preschool children and how access to these categories changes with age. Results of three experiments with children and adults confirmed the psychological reality of certain semantic categories, and provided evidence suggesting a transition in the prominence of semantic relative to…

Attempts to formulate an appropriate linguistic generalization for the occurrence of inhibited periodic eyeblinking by fluent American Sign Language (ASL) signers. It is shown that signers' eyeblinks are sensitive to syntactic structure, from which intonational phrases may be derived. (19 references) (MDM)