It is proposed that syntactic processes (rules and constraints) may have a semantic basis. Evidence is presented that the constraint against backward pronominalization with indefinite antecedents derives from the semantic properties of various classes of definite noun phrases. (CK)

This study was based on that of Jorgensen and Kintsch (1973) regarding verification time and ease of imagery of sentences. The present study concluded that the results of Jorgensen and Kintsch do not distinguish the effects of rated imagery on reaction time from the effects of semantic relatedness and semantic complexity. (Author/RM)

Research is reported in which children were tested for their comprehension of four types of sentences with relative clauses. The Parallel Function Hypothesis is proposed, and implications for adult grammar are discussed. (Author/RM)

In this column, the term "pragmatics", a part of linguistic analysis, is explained. The study of pragmatics concerns language usage in natural context. The item of analysis is not the sentence, but the utterance of the sentence in a particular well-defined set of contexts. (SW)

Teaching of modal auxiliaries without developing in students an understanding of the concepts and unity underlying their use may undermine the original objective of communication in language. The use of a classification matrix with a set of sample sentences is suggested as an effective method of presentation. (MSE)

Instead of teaching three divisions (when-type clauses, conditional clauses, and wish-clauses), two units may be used (possible situations and contrary-to-fact situations). Suggestions are made for interesting class practice. (MSE)

This paper presents two types of Spanish sentences and contradicts theories which relate the two with identical deep structures. Criteria presented appear to show the two differ in deep structure and are related lexically rather than transformationally. (CK)

This article examines problems in translation on the level of semantics, phonology, syntax, and morphology. The use of the subjunctive is discusses as a specific problem area. (Text is in French.) (AM)

Third of a series of drills on Russian verbs of motion. Answers are provided. (Text is in Russian.) (TL)

This paper proposes to give an evolutionary background to a method developed for the analysis of language seen as expression of intention and morality--the method is named "Perspective Text Analysis." The paper argues that this name indicates that beyond the physical dimension of a text there is a metaphysical one, which can be…

A discussion of autosegmental phonology (AP), a theory of phonological representation that uses graphs rather than strings as the central data structure, considers its principal constraint, the "No Crossing Constraint" (NCC). The NCC is the statement that in a well-formed autosegmental diagram, lines of association may not cross. After…

In looking at the forms language takes, linguists sometimes forget to ask the obvious question about the relationship between the forms language uses (phonology and syntax) and the function language is expected to play as a vehicle of communication. Probably the bulk of our daily communication involves the allocation and use of power, the politics…

Yupik language has two devices to indicate switch reference. The rules generally given for them are not entirely correct, and counterexamples to the ideal have been found previously. A subset of those counterexamples in Central Yupik Eskimo support the claim that there are two systems, partially overlapping and partially unique, that organize…

An investigation was undertaken into the possibility of automatically detecting how concepts exist in relation to each other in abstracts, a text-type commonly used in free-text retrieval. The end goal of this research is to capture these relationships in structured representations of abstracts' contents so that users can require not only that the…

A syntactic analysis of the behavior of the Japanese causative is presented within the framework of Tree Adjoining Grammar (TAG). Three points are made: (1) certain aspects of the case-marking in the Japanese causative construction can be accounted for if it is assumed that the formation of the causative involves verb-movement, and that…