Suggests that a narrow kind of bilingualism exists within every language and is present whenever two properties exist in a language that are not statable within a single grammar. This theoretical bilingualism is defined in terms of the minimalist theory of syntax presented by Chomsky (1995). (Author/VWL)

Seven peer commentaries are included in response to an article on the notion that a narrow kind of bilingualism exists within every language and is present whenever two properties exist in a language that are not statable within a single grammar. This theoretical bilingualism is defined in terms of the minimalist theory of syntax presented by…

Responds to peer comments on an article the author wrote on theoretical bilingualism--a narrow kind of bilingualism exists within every language and is present whenever two properties exist in a language that are not statable within a single grammar. (Author/VWL)

Two word-spotting experiments are reported that examine whether the Possible-Word Constraint (PWC) is a language-specific or language-universal strategy for the segmentation of continuous speech. Examined cases where the residue was either a CVC syllable with a Schwa or a CV syllable with a lax vowel. Showed that the word-spotting results…

Shows that the architecture of a children's poetic text is based on systematic use of repetition and contrast at different levels of analysis, which allow the continuous flow of gesture to be segmented into structural units of different relative size. Suggests the study of poetry allows the isolation of universals of language. (Author/VWL)

Four recent volumes on acquisition of French by different populations cover a range of areas, particularly the development of verbal tense/agreement and nominal gender/concord in first language (L1) acquirers, as opposed to second language (L2) learners; the generalizability of grammatical deficits (e.g. difficulty acquiring parametrized features…

This study reports the results of a picture verification task assessing the interpretation of intra-sentential anaphora and cataphora in Italian by a group of English-Italian bilingual eight-year-olds, a group of age-matched Italian monolinguals, and a group of Italian monolingual adults. No significant differences between the groups were observed…

Most of the ordinary words in a language do not mean; rather, they act as rigid designators, referring to the same object in all possible words in which the object exists. Most words are names that are used as rigid designators of kinds--natural kinds (species, genre, and so forth), artifacts, physical and social magnitudes, and sorts of…

The question of why language acquisition is not instantaneous is addressed in terms of two related issues: the logical and the developmental aspects of language acquisition. The role of linguistic theory and research in determining the interplay of these two aspects of grammatical development is examined. It is suggested that the…

A semantic feature analysis was used with native speakers of different language families to test the universality of certain aspects of sentence interpretation. (Author/AM)

SECONDARY ONOMATOPOEIA, ALSO REFERRED TO AS "SOUND-SYMBOLISM," DESIGNATES THE REPRESENTATION IN SPEECH SOUNDS OF NON-ACOUSTIC EXPERIENCES. THE NON-ACOUSTIC EXPERIENCES DEALT WITH ARE VISUAL (IMPRESSIONS OF MAGNITUDE AND LUMINOSITY) AND EMOTIONAL (MOODS OF GLOOM AND HAPPINESS). THIS PAPER DESCRIBES AN EMPIRICAL STUDY DESIGNED TO EXPLORE…

This paper makes observations on verb classification which are considered relevant to the understanding of Swahili syntax. Three different syntactically relevant approaches are discussed: (1) establishing a set of "basic sentence types" and then classifying verbs according to their occurrence or non-occurrence in sentences of these…

This first English edition of Trubetzkoy's classic work, translated by Christiane A.M. Baltaxe, treats some 200 phonological systems attested in the world's languages. Central to the book is the author's "Theory of Distinctiveness" which states that there are certain minimal distinctive phonic properties that appear to be universal…

The measurement of interlingual distance (how far removed one language is from another) is both possible and feasible; and it can be computed in different ways. The difference between the codes of the two languages can be measured by one technique and the differences in samples of discourse by another. The samples may be measured as static…

Discusses the relationship between subject and predicate, using examples from various languages; demonstrates the inadequacy of a universal view of the notion of "subject"; and presents a diachronic hypothesis concerning the subject-theme dialectic. (AM)