A model of language transfer is proposed. It examines the nature of language transfer, identifies which language phenomena are transferred, and predicts conditions for language transfer occurrence. The model includes notions of language universals, language distance, and surface language phenomena. (PMJ)

In an experiment investigating aspects of children's comprehension of sentences containing the connective "if," young children judged correct and reversed "Y if X" and "If X, Y" sentences as "sensible" or "silly." The comprehension of the role of "if" in sentences appears to be a…

Verbal elements in Cairene Arabic are investigated in the light of two opposing hypotheses, one stating that the elements constitute a unit, the other stating that each element is an independent predicate. (AM)

Three experiments investigated factors influencing the integration of facts acquired from texts. Subjects encountered related facts in the context of relatively long, meaningful texts, a single text, or in two separate texts. Results indicate that integration can occur in both cases. (SW)

Each of 464 noun pairs was rated for synonymy on a seven-point scale by college students to provide an extensive set of synonym pairs for use as stimuli in experiments, and to evaluate the effects of word encoding order on perceived synonymy. (SW)

Language sampling was studied with normal four- and six-year-old children in three conditions (conversation, picture description with the experimenter and child looking at the stimuli, and picture description with the experimenter unable to view the stimuli with the child. (Author/CL)

Twenty-five male stutterers and 25 male non-stutterers (mean age 9 years) read or recited under conditions of normal and delayed auditory feedback to determine the correlation between disfluencies in speech and normal or delayed feedback. (Author/PHR)

Recent experiments in machine translation have given the semantic elements of collocation in Russian more objective criteria. Soviet linguists in search of semantic relationships have attempted to devise a semantic synthesis for construction of a basic language for machine translation. One such effort is summarized. (CHK)

Describes the identifying chain manifested in different types of Arabic texts, demonstrates the ways a chain is formulated, and highlights the functions performed by such chains. Findings indicate that chains are unifying relations that create texture and structure within texts. (12 references) (Author/CK)

Highlights methodological issues that impact phonetic-phonological data collection and interpretation in studies of early language differentiation. Issues include language context, bilingual versus monolingual mode, and adult listening bias. Presents data from two bilingual children, aged 4 and 2, learning Japanese and English. (Author/VWL)

Addresses the question of differential substitution in English phonology, arguing that an optimality theoretical analysis makes finer-grained predictions than earlier accounts. Suggests that crosslinguistically the substitution of [t] for/0/ is the default and that a [s] substitution only will arise when certain phonological alternations are found…

Analysis of the French verb prefix "re-" finds its occurrence characterized not, strictly speaking, by meaning but by the variety of ways in which the verb itself and its prefixed form interact. Occurrences of "re-" are classified into five categories. Verbs not compatible with the prefix and several unusual cases are also discussed. (MSE)

An explanation of the ordering and co-occurrence constraints operating within French complement clitic sequences is proposed. It is argued that these template-formed syntactic constituents result from interaction of two features in conjunction with certain phonological constraints, and that once explained, the clitic sequence can be seen as an…

Analyzes various apparently synonymous words for "friend" (e.g., "homes,""bro") as they are used by one former gang-member to persuade two current gang-members to stop "gangbanging." The article's analysis shows how the meanings of these disparate reference terms are made and remade through talk as…