Stuttering on function words was examined in 51 children and adults who stutter. Stuttering rate was a function of age (children stuttered more on function words), position (function words in early positions in utterances were more likely to be stuttered), and on whether the function word occurred before or after the single content word.…

The effects of manipulating the connective words "because" and "after" on fifth graders' reading comprehension was examined. The results provide no support for the notion that sentence length is related to comprehensibility or that implicit connectives are more difficult to comprehend. (HOD)

Points out that "pro"-drop languages have restrictions on the reference of "pro" not found with the overt pronomials of non-"pro"-drop languages. Notes that while the overt pronouns of non-"pro"-drop languages may take clausal antecedents, "pro" may not take these elements as linguistic antecedents. (24 references) (Author/CK)

A study was undertaken to investigate which of ten constructions are available to children of various ages for expressing conditionality. A modified sentence completion test based on use of the ten constructions was designed, field-tested, and administered individually to 20 students in each of five grades: kindergarten and grades two, four, six,…

As may be seen from data collected during language observations of four children over a period of two and a half years, children's sentences are not simply flawed versions of adult counterparts, but seem to result from a different grammar. These data indicate that logical formatives, such as "even," and "only," are sentence-initial constituents.…

The purpose of the study was to investigate children's understanding of "before" and "after" in temporal directions, in temporal questions, and in pictorial events through the use of three interview methods. The subjects for the study were 62 children, ranging in age from 40 to 80 months, enrolled in a half-day, private nursery/kindergarten…

The classes and class members of function words are examined in detail in this paper in order to determine those which are most basic and most important to comprehension at the kindergarten through first-grade level. Noun determiners and pronouns, verbal determiners, and prepositions were found to be of importance, as were a small number of…

Suggests that Slovene is acquiring a verb-second (V2) word order. Slovene is compared with Serbo-Croat to reveal diverged word order of these languages. Aspects of the history of the Germanic languages are examined for clues on current and possible future changes in Slovene. (Author/LMO)

The comprehension of sentences with "because" or "if" was investigated in children aged 2, 9-11, and 11. (Author/MP)

This guide presents a system for determining the qender of French nouns that has been tested against 12,000 pages of general reading: novels, history, social science, law, finance, and the Bible. The guide discusses the rules for determining gender and also presents various lists of the non-routine or exceptions to the rules. It is asserted that…

Describes two experiments which assessed the ability of adult second language (L2) learners to produce and comprehend real, unreal, and past unreal English conditional sentences. Developmental differences are analyzed in relation to distinctive features. The analyses lend support to the explanatory power of markedness theory in explaining L2…

Contrasts the syntactic view of forward and backward deletion of base structure elements with the idea that pragmatic factors of situational redundancy and perceptual grouping account for conjunction reduction in children. (EKN)

Errors made by Finnish university students in the use of the English article were analyzed using two types of error analyses: a traditional type of error analysis to provide an overall view of the errors found in students' compositions; and a multiple-choice test devised on the basis of the findings and shortcomings of the first test. With the…

Investigates the linguistic and cognitive aspects of the mastery of the time conjunctions "before" and "after" by young children. (EKN)

A number of errors which typify the English speech or writing of Egyptian students of EFL (English as a foreign language) were identified. A series of matched sentences -- some containing a deviant feature, others not -- were recorded by a native speaker of English and by a native speaker of Arabic. Groups of intermediate and of advanced EFL…