Among the many ways in which sounds alternate in the world's languages, changes in the order of sounds (metathesis) are relatively rare. Mutsun, a Southern Costanoan language of California which was documented extensively before the death of its last speaker in 1930, displays three patterns of synchronic consonant-vowel (CV) metathesis. Two of…

Taking up analytical issues raised primarily in Dixon (2000) and Dixon & Aikhenvald (2000), this dissertation combines descriptive work with a medium-sized (50-language) typological study. Chapter 1 situates the dissertation against a concise survey of typological-functional work on causative constructions from the last few decades, and…

Learners frequently experience phonologically inconsistent input, such as exposure to multiple accents. Yet, little is known about the consequences of phonological inconsistency for language learning. The current study examines vocabulary acquisition with different degrees of phonological inconsistency, ranging from no inconsistency (e.g., both…

THE PHONETIC FEATURES OF AMERICAN ENGLISH AND OF THE FOREIGN LANGUAGES TAUGHT IN THE UNITED STATES WERE ANALYZED AND DESCRIBED. STUDIES INVOLVED COMPARING ENGLISH TO GERMAN, SPANISH, AND FRENCH ON THE BASES OF VARIOUS PROSODIC, VOCALIC, AND CONSONANT LANGUAGE FEATURES. SPECTROGRAPHIC PATTERNS OF CONTRASTIVE UTTERANCES WERE ANALYZED, SYNTHESIZED,…

This article proposes a California Penutian etymology for two distinct roots meaning "two," and shows some of the transformations of morphological material which have characterized innovations in language subgroups related to California Penutian. This provides important evidence for the history of California Penutian. (CLK)

THE HYPOTHESIS THAT TYPEWRITING INSTRUCTION COULD BE USED AS AN AID TO THE LEARNING OF ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE WAS TESTED. STUDENTS WERE ASSIGNED TO EXPERIMENTAL AND CONTROL GROUPS, MATCHED ON THE BASIS OF PRECOURSE ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEST SCORES AND SUCH OTHER FACTORS AS NATIVE LANGUAGE. BOTH GROUPS COMPLETED THE REGULAR 12-WEEK, ENGLISH…

THE PRIMARY OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY WAS TO INVESTIGATE THE EFFECT UPON WORD RECOGNITION AND READING COMPREHENSION SKILLS OF FOUR READING PROGRAMS. THESE PROGRAMS VARIED IN (1) THE DEGREE OF REGULARITY OF GRAPHEME-PHONEME CORRESPONDENCES PROGRAMED INTO THE VOCABULARY PRESENTED AND (2) THE EMPHASIS ON LANGUAGE STRUCTURE AS RELATED TO MEANING. FOUR…

IN AN EFFORT TO DEVELOP ACCURATE FORMULAS FOR PREDICTING AND CONTROLLING THE READABILITY OF LANGUAGE, FIVE BASIC PROBLEMS WERE STUDIED--(1) THE VARIOUS FEATURES OF WRITING STYLE AS LINEARLY RELATED TO COMPREHENSION DIFFICULTIES, (2) THE CHANGE OF STRENGTHS OF RELATIONSHIPS AS A FUNCTION OF READING ABILITY, (3) READABILITY PREDICTION MADE UPON…

This booklet points out some of the characteristics of the varieties of English spoken in Riverside and in the rest of California. The first chapter provides a general discussion of language variation and change on the levels of vocabulary, pronunciation, and grammar. The second chapter discusses California English and pronunciation and vocabulary…