About 25 children in each of grades 3, 5, 7, 9, and 11 were tested in their ability to solve linear syllogisms, such as: John is taller than Mary. Mary is taller than Pete. Who is tallest--John, Mary, or Pete? Response latencies and error rates decreased across grade levels and sessions. Component latencies also generally decreased with increasing…

A study of verb agreement and clause structure in Karaja, a Brazilian indigenous language of Macro-Je stock, discusses the subject and object agreement systems with relation to the Feature Specification Constraint. Implementation of the SOV order in Karaja is then analyzed and evidence is presented for the existence of a single functional phrase…

These papers deal with a variety of topics bearing on modality in a variety of languages and language families. While all languages have ways of expressing modality, that is, such notions as possibility, necessity, and contingency, this phenomenon has been the object of little systematic linguistic analysis. These papers are presented with the…

Four issues of "TESL Reporter" are presented. Contents include the following articles: ''An Approach to the [I] [i] Contrast" by William D. Conway; "Native Language Environment Is Source of Confusion" by Alice Pack; "The Origin of Language: A Puzzle With Missing Pieces"; "Terminal Behavior and Language…

Four issues of the "TESL Reporter" are presented. Contents are as follows: "The Utterance-Response Method to Pattern Drill" by Jason B. Alter; "Your Gestures and Mannerisms: A Help or Hindrance?" by Alice C. Pack; "Part II: A Structural Comparison of English and Tongan" by Ermel J. Morton; "Teaching…