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O'Byrne, Vera De R. – Engl Australia, 1970
Descriptors: Communication (Thought Transfer), Comparative Analysis, Language, Language Universals
Rutherford, William E. – TESOL Quart, 1969
A somewhat modified version of a paper presented at the annual conference of the National Association for Foreign Student Affairs, May 1969. (FWB)
Descriptors: Applied Linguistics, English (Second Language), Language Instruction, Language Universals

Gandour, Jack; And Others – Language and Speech, 1980
Data on the durations of vowels preceding voiced and voiceless stops in three normal speakers and three esophageal speakers (who had had laryngectomies) suggested that the vowel length variations that were observed were language-specific, governed by phonological rules of English, and were not language universals. (Author/RL)
Descriptors: Comparative Analysis, Distinctive Features (Language), Language Patterns, Language Research

Dickerson, Wayne B. – Language Learning, 1976
In comparing the mechanism of a native language sound change and the acquisition of a second language phonology, it is concluded that individuals approach the learning and changing of phonology in a psycholinguistically unified way; the foreign language learner is fundamentally like himself as a native language changer. (Author/POP)
Descriptors: Diachronic Linguistics, English (Second Language), Language Research, Language Universals

Schumann, John H. – Language Learning, 1976
This paper presents a case study of the untutored acquisition of English by a 33-year-old Costa Rican male. Three causes for his lack of linguistic development over a 10-month period are considered: ability, age, and social and psychological distance. The third of these is seen as the cause. (Author/POP)
Descriptors: Cross Cultural Studies, Culture Conflict, English (Second Language), Interlanguage

Gibson, Edward; And Others – Cognition, 1996
Provides new evidence from Spanish and English self-paced reading experiments on relative clause attachment sites. Suggests that a principle like Late Closure is universally operative in the human parser. Proposes that a second factor is the principle of Predicate Proximity. Discusses the origins and predictions of the theory combining these two…
Descriptors: Ambiguity, English, Language Processing, Language Research

Orsolini, Margherita; Marslen-Wilson, William – Language and Cognitive Processes, 1997
Examines the dual mechanism hypothesis, which argues that the apparent contrast, in English inflectional morphology, between a rule-based default procedure, generating regular past-tense forms, and listed irregular forms stored in an associative net, reflects universal constraints on the properties of possible morphological systems. The study…
Descriptors: Contrastive Linguistics, English, Italian, Language Research

White, Lydia – Second Language Research, 1989
Explores the concept of markedness in two different linguistically based approaches to universals in second language acquisition. While typologists define markedness implicationally, current theories of language learnability define markedness in terms of the Subset Principle. (21 references) (Author/CB)
Descriptors: Comparative Analysis, Diacritical Marking, Language Acquisition, Language Research

Barbin, Christina – Language Problems and Language Planning, 1987
Research suggests that Aymara, an ancient language still spoken in parts of South America, may be well suited for use as a "bridge" language in translation because of its extremely regular and coherent grammar. A machine translation program using the language has already been developed. (MSE)
Descriptors: Aymara, Computer Oriented Programs, Grammar, Language Planning

Curnow, Timothy Jowan – Australian Review of Applied Linguistics, 1995
Analyzes the rhetorical functions carried out by the selection of voice--active, passive, or "se"-passive--in biological research articles in Spanish. The author compares these rhetorical functions with those found in French and English scientific papers and on the basis of this comparison, suggests the existence of some universals. (18…
Descriptors: Biological Sciences, Contrastive Linguistics, Discourse Analysis, English

Bouchard, Denis; Dubuisson, Colette – Sign Language Studies, 1995
Using data from American and Quebec Sign Languages, this article argues against linguistic theories that postulate either that a language has a basic order determined by universal principles or that there is a single universal order for all languages. Maintains that there are other means a language can use to indicate what elements combine…
Descriptors: American Sign Language, Foreign Countries, Grammar, Language Universals

Gundel, Jeanette K.; And Others – Language, 1993
Proposes six related cognitive statuses relevant for explicating the use of referring expressions in natural language discourse. A study of the distribution of referring expressions in naturally occurring discourse in English, Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, Russian, and Spanish is offered as support for the proposal. (Contains 91 references.) (Author)
Descriptors: Cognitive Processes, Discourse Analysis, English, Japanese

Myhill, John; Xing, Zhiqun – Language Sciences, 1994
Presents a systematic comparison of the function of voice alterations in three genetically unrelated languages--Biblical Hebrew, Chinese, and English. It is shown that passive or passivelike function can be divided into a number of discrete functional types, each of which is associated with a certain combination of translation equivalents in the…
Descriptors: Chinese, Contrastive Linguistics, English, Hebrew

Falk, Yehuda N. – Journal of Linguistics, 1991
Investigates a single linguistic universal that typifies the generative approach to grammar: morphological causativization. The study offers a predictive lexical analysis of causativization within the framework of Government/Binding theory, discusses syntactic and lexical analyses, and examines transitive verbs. Discussions concerning periphrastic…
Descriptors: French, Generative Grammar, Japanese, Language Research

Ying, H. G. – Second Language Research, 1999
A study of native English speakers learning Chinese investigated second-language learners' knowledge of reconstruction in Chinese. Results of a sentence-interpretation task indicated that English speakers had access to a universal grammar. They demonstrated knowledge of ambiguity of ziti (self) inside a moved predicate and lack of ambiguity of…
Descriptors: Chinese, College Students, Grammar, Higher Education