Many second-language learners in their early stages of development are known to make an extensive use of prefabricated formulae. These formulae are extracted holistically from the input and memorized by rote. Learners can learn to use expressions that are far beyond their current knowledge of syntax and vocabulary, by guessing their meaning from…

The introduction to systemic functional linguistics explores the social semiotic approach to language most closely associated with the work of Michael Halliday and his colleagues. An approach that views language as a strategic, meaning-making resource, systemic linguistics focuses on the analysis of authentic, everyday texts and asks both how…

A discussion of classroom second language learning focuses on whether or not the concept of natural development in a target language is an appropriate research perspective. It is argued that the current psycholinguistic framework for such research should be replaced by the perspective that language learning is a social and contextual, not…

This paper discusses findings from an ongoing 3-year study of the impact of strategy training on Russian listening comprehension. In particular, the study focused on the techniques that encourage increased student control of their application of learner strategies. The research presented adds to prior research on listening training in second…

Relevance theory, the premise that a hearer will make the effort to process a communication if he or she feels it will alter or enrich his/her cognitive environment, can be useful for increasing the effectiveness of advertising communication. It is particularly helpful for analyzing and improving the effectiveness of the creative devices often…

This paper begins with an outline of some desirable properties of a communicative-pedagogical grammar. This serves as a theoretical point of reference for the subsequent description of a narrowly bounded semantic area, that of regret and relief. Conceptual analysis reveals a systematic relationship between these two emotions, which is…

The development of the Cambridge Assessment of Spoken English (CASE) is reviewed, with particular reference to the trialling and validation of the rating scales. The objectives of the test are to assess an individual's ability to produce and process spoken English; demonstrate the ability to communicate in English through the use of grammatical,…

The so-called deviant character of a set of non-native texts is examined by looking closely at how sentence syntax realizes and affects textual functions. Two broad groups of syntactic phenomena are considered: subordination and "marked structures," such as passives and clefts. Emphasis in this paper is on the following four ways in which syntax…

A study examined the tonal patterns in Komo, a sub-Bantu language of about 200,000 speakers in Zaire. It investigated: (1) the minimal lexical specifications necessary for Komo tones; (2) what sort of tonal alternations exist and how they may be accounted for most simply with rules; (3) how tonal phenomena interact with Komo morphology; and (4) at…

A discussion focusing on the abstractness of analysis in phonology, debated since the 1960s, describes the issue, reviews the literature on the subject, cites specific natural language examples, and examines the extent to which the issue has been resolved. An underlying representation is said to be abstract if it is different from the derived one,…

The word order in Klamath, a Penutian language of southern Oregon, has been described as almost completely "free". The language is examined in terms of the effect of the relative topicality of arguments on their position preceding or following the verb. The database used for this study consisted of seven Klamath texts from Barker (1963):…

The use of the term "Creole" to refer to the Haitian language is discussed, and it is argued that "Haitian" is a more appropriate term. Psycholinguistic and sociolinguistic functions of the term are examined, including its etymological and usage history and images associated with its application in a variety of locations and…

The Seri language contains over 50 kinship terms and represents one of the most highly elaborated kinship systems described to date. This paper discusses Seri kinship terminology and centers around, but is not limited to, the set of obligatory possessed noun stems that are inflected with the following possessive prefixes":…

An analysis of tone in language begins with the observation that the structural approach taken in segmental phonology, analyzing complex tones in terms of sequences of level tones, is not necessarily appropriate with tone languages. A different approach is proposed, a "dynamic-tone" theory that represents tone contours entirely in terms…

This paper discusses the theoretical status of Vendler classes in grammar and utterance interpretation. In the 1950s Zeno Vendler outlined a taxonomy of verb classification which grouped verbs into four equal categories: (1) activity terms; (2) accomplishment terms; (3) achievement terms; and (4) state terms. Although Vendler's taxonomy still has…