This article focuses on linguistic and cognitive characteristics inherent in the composition of the English postmodern tales written by J.K. Rowling. The composition of the text is viewed as linguistic and cognitive construal that integrates compositional plot structure, compositional meaning structure, linguistic and stylistic means of their…

In this paper, the statistical significance of the contribution of variables to the principal components in principal components analysis (PCA) is assessed nonparametrically by the use of permutation tests. We compare a new strategy to a strategy used in previous research consisting of permuting the columns (variables) of a data matrix…

While visual signals that accompany spoken language serve to augment the communicative message, the same visual ingredients form the substance of the linguistic system in sign languages. This article provides an analysis of visual signals that comprise part of the intonational system of a sign language. The system is conveyed mainly by particular…

Two reasons may be responsible for the poor grasp of the linguistic concepts related to literacy acquisition by preservice and in-service teachers: a lack of attention given to such concepts by teacher educators (college faculty members) and a lack of relevant information provided in the textbooks used in college courses. In an earlier study, the…

Institutional vision is a philosophical template--a concept of what, at its best, a college or university is like and the kinds of human beings that institution is attempting to cultivate. A content analysis of the institutional vision of a nation wide sample of Catholic schools was performed and key linguistic components found to constitute a…

Conscious of the importance of enhancing semantics at higher levels, this paper proposes the use of componential analysis to increase students' awareness of different shades of meaning (Gairns & Redman 1986). First, it briefly reviews componential analysis theory, as well as its criticisms and possible applications. Then, with the help of the…

Bloomfield's "Linguistics as a Science" (1930/1970), "Language" (1933/1961), and "Language or Ideas?" (1936a/1970), and Skinner's "Verbal Behavior" (1957) and "Science and Human Behavior" (1953) were analyzed in regard to their respective perspectives on science and scientific method, the verbal episode, meaning, and subject matter. Similarities…

This paper reports three experiments that test the Presupposition-Denial account of complement set reference. According to the theory, complement set focus arises when focus is on the difference between the amount conveyed by a natural language quantifier and a large presupposed amount. We call this difference the shortfall. In this paper, what is…

This study examines how rapid automatized naming (RAN) components-articulation time and pause time-develop from kindergarten to the end of first grade and how RAN components are related to different reading measures and to RAN total time. Sixty-two children were administered RAN tasks in kindergarten and at the beginning and end of Grade 1.…