In this article, Lardiere responds to peer comments regarding her earlier article "Some Thoughts on the Contrastive Analysis of Features in Second Language Acquisition" (EJ831786). Lardiere acknowledges the reviewers' thoughtful contributions and expert expansion on various facets of the original article. While she states that it is clear from the…

The conceptual structure account of semantic memory (CSA; L. K. Tyler & H. E. Moss, 2001) claims that feature correlation (the degree to which features co-occur) and feature distinctiveness (the number of concepts in which a feature occurs) interact with domains of knowledge (e.g., living vs. nonliving) such that the distinctive features of…

Initial studies on the acquisition of two Spanish copulas, "ser" and "estar", emerged from a research agenda exploring whether second language (L2) development was driven by universal mechanisms manifested in stages rather than an accumulation of entities (Rutherford, 1987). Concerning the Spanish copulas, the stages of acquisition through which…

Describes the Torus Model of phonological space, which illustrates the usefulness of distinctive feature theory. (AM)

Traces the history of glottal sounds in humans, and examines some of the functions of the glottal stop in modern languages, particularly French. (AM)

Investigates two questions: (1) Will Russian lose its well-developed distinction between hard and soft consonants? (2) What would be the consequences of such a loss for comprehension of sustained discourse in the language? (EKN)

Presents a five-step phonological analysis which relies on experimental phonetics. (AM)

Discusses phonic shifting or sound shifts through an examination of Grimm's Law, or the Germanic Consonant Shift. The discussion includes comments on why the phonic shift developed and its pattern. (10 references) (GLR)

Reviews and comments on the major points made in Albert Gessman's paper, "Grimm's Law: Fact or Myth?" Through the evaluation of the paper's 13 points, several ideas are pointed out that are believed to be crucial to Gessman's arguments. (29 references) (GLR)

Discusses the difficulties in diagnosing phonetic and phonemic disorders in aphasics. (AM)

Argues for the application of historical linguistic information in the college second language classroom, maintaining that such knowledge will help to enlighten and enrich second language study by forcing both students and teachers to examine and understand aspects of the language. (CB)

Discusses various theoretical approaches to the semantic analysis of lexical units, focusing on the componential or axiological approach which defines a unit's semantic "value" as the combination of certain distinctive features. Concludes that this approach, so far, has not offered much practical assistance to translators faced with…

All consonant sounds involving the sound /y/ omit the letter Y, such as few, cute, immune, and view. Perhaps 75% of high school students whose formal reading level is below seventh grade will not be able to pronounce these words that contain the "invisible" Y sound. Good students usually do not have to be taught this pattern, but average…

Demonstrates the value of quantitative analysis of discourse options by focusing on two discourse options for the representation of cause and effect. (HTH)

This article argues that minimal pairs do not merit as much attention as they receive in pronunciation instruction. There are other aspects of pronunciation that are of greater importance, and there are other ways of teaching vowel and consonant pronunciation. (13 references) (VWL)