Outlines problems encountered in translating the English verb "to affect" into French. (Text is in French.) (CLK)

This paper reports an investigation into the acquisition of indirect object constructions by English children aged 5-10. Sentences having a prepositional "to" phrase containing the indirect object, and following the direct object, were acquired before sentences where the indirect object preceded the direct object. (CHK)

This bibliography cites books and articles in English, German, French, Spanish, and Italian concerning alexia and other language disorders. (CLK)

Mildred Milliea has researched and developed the only Micmac language program in the Maritimes. The Micmac alphabet with equivalent sounds, the numerical system, and examples of new Micmac words are given. (NQ)

Responds to some of the arguments in Firth and Wagner's (F&W's) article appearing in this issue. Argues that whether one uses a psychological or sociological paradigm, it makes sense to follow the practice of assigning preference to experimental rather than naturalistic settings and agrees with F&W that other factors besides one's proficiency in…

Discusses the paradigms in American Sign Language (ASL) resulting from a process called "numeral incorporation" and others in which numeral handshapes alternate to express different numerical values. Concludes that not only are the signs in the "decade" paradigm fixed units in ASL grammar, but so are all the other examples of numeral…

Investigates the processes that deaf school children use for spelling. Compares results with those of hearing children. Finds that "regular" words were easier to learn than "opaque" words (words that could be spelled only on the basis of lexical orthographic information) for all groups. Discusses findings in light of current…

Presents an objective quantitative analysis of separate dialect features from the "Linguistic Atlas of the Middle and South Atlantic States." Findings suggest that a mathematical modeling of areal variation of dialect features, combined with a reassessment of traditional notions of dialect, could contribute to knowledge of language and…

Presents an annotated bibliography summarizing theoretically grounded reports of research and discussions of central issues in second- and foreign-language writing and writing instruction recently available. (CK)

Analyzes the grammatical scaffolding by teacher and second language learner of causal explanations that form part of work by a group of second language students in a project on the human brain. Shows how a systemic functional linguistics analysis reveals different aspects of recast data sequences than does a focus on form approach. (Author/VWL)

Examines "okay" deployed as an assessment of student performance in parent-teacher conference interactions. Data drawn for 35 videotaped and audiotaped conferences are presented to demonstrate that "okay" participates as a value in two distinct metrics of assessment--one binary, one gradated. (Author/VWL)

Justification offered by Steven Pinker for his theory that thought is independent of language, and that thought is couched in some silent medium of the brain ("Mentalese"), is outlined step by step and critiqued. It is argued that the theory ignores deep technical issues and is not explanatory. (MSE)

Suggests that, despite some perceptions, second language acquisition theory has a history. Disputes arguments that might be formulated to support the notion that second language acquisition theory has no relevant earlier history, enumerates consequences of maintaining this belief, and speculates about benefits to the field that might accrue from…

Examines the implications of the metaphor of the vocabulary network. Takes a formal approach to the exploration of this metaphor by applying the principles of graph theory to word association data to compare the relative densities of the first language and second language lexical networks. (Author/VWL)

Argues nonverbal communication (NVC) forms an important part of everyday speech transmission and should occupy a more central position in second and foreign language teaching than it currently does. Examines the role played by NVC in a three-turn conversational exchange and the literature supporting the notion that speech-related gestures have a…