This paper explores the question of interpreting complex texts, particularly scripts and multimedia presentations. The paper first reviews the literature on natural discourse, noting that although interpreting spoken natural language seems rather straightforward, many scholars have discussed what is required to make sense of discourse. The paper…

This paper seeks to determine the essential qualities of proper nouns and to determine the differences between proper and common nouns by reviewing research and writings on the subject. Both proper and common nouns are found to connote the attributes of objects as their content. Common nouns, however, are those that identify a certain substance on…

The interactionist perspective on second language learning has focused on the social aspects of interaction, with interaction viewed as the context and process through which language can be learned. Language learning through interaction can be viewed from several current theoretical perspectives of second language learning: as interaction of…

An analysis of subject placement in Italian argues that placement is not determined entirely by case, but also partly by interpretational considerations. The crucial step in the argument is that there are independent well-formedness conditions on discourse structures and that the apparent interpretational effects on preposed subjects of…

Early explanations of sound change were often sought in extralinguistic factors such as climate or the speakers' physiology. More recently, scholars have been reluctant to explain changes this way, but the most widely accepted extralinguistic explanation is the substratum theory. Other linguists, notably the Prague group, looked to the linguistic…

A study examined pragmatic routine and indirection as regularly-used strategies for accomplishing linguistic action that, while conventional, can pose problems for non-native speakers. Two kinds of conventionalities are distinguished: conventionality of means (kinds of semantic structure that have acquired a standard illocutionary force, such as,…

The value of markedness theory in constructing explanatory models of linguistic meaning is questioned, particularly the claim that a single relationship (marked vs. unmarked) accounts for all differences in asymmetrically paired terms. It is argued that because unmarked terms vary greatly in the distributions that identify them as unmarked,…

Conjunctions (e.g., "if, and, so") appear in varied contexts and are associated with a wide range of interpretations. The theoretical options concerning the lexical specifications of these items are: (1) multiplicity of senses; and (2) restricted senses augmented by conversational implicatures. It is proposed here that the latter…

Patterns of plural selection in Armenian suggest that lexical representations of morphemes must include predictable syllabic structure, contrary to most theories of phonology, and that some phonological rules such as syllabification may precede morphological rules, contrary to the theory of distributed morphology. Furthermore, certain segments at…

The history of linguistics in the United States is chronicled from the founding of the American Philosophical Society in 1769 to the emergence of the American Linguistic Society in 1924. An introductory chapter outlines the goals of linguistic historiography and the rationalizations behind the definitions of the periods examined here. Subsequent…

Arguing that all language is communication, but very little communication is language, this paper explores questions of method and evidence in the human science practice of communicology. The first part of the paper analyzes the dialectical question of methodology in which method as procedure is implicated with thought (logos) as judgment per se,…

A study examined the relative contributions of age, sex, and education to verbal and nonverbal fluency in a normal population. Sixty-seven subjects aged 12 to 71 years performed paper-and-pencil tasks proven to be dependent on the right and left hemispheric modalities of the frontal lobes. Multiple t-tests were applied to determine whether…

Literary Yiddish shows a high frequency of declarative sentences with the subject present and the verb in sentence-initial position, the so-called consecutive order. This construction was analyzed in one collection of 17 short narratives and with reference to a hypothesis of German grammarians regarding a similar structure in German. In this…

An analysis of the use of the English particle "also" in discourse is presented. First, previous analyses of "also" and of related particles "even, only" are outlined and critiqued. It is argued that these analyses draw inadequate conclusions about the particles' usage patterns and meaning. A formulation of the…

The status of text/discourse research in South Africa is analyzed. The discussion begins with some background information on the nature of discourse research, and proceeds to an overview of the whole field of discourse research in that country and then a look at research on Afrikaans discourse. Both general trends and specific areas of research…