Idiomatic expressions (IEs) play an essential role in natural language. In this paper, we study the task of idiomatic sentence paraphrasing (ISP), which aims to paraphrase a sentence with an IE by replacing the IE with its literal paraphrase. The lack of large scale corpora with idiomatic-literal parallel sentences is a primary challenge for this…

As language technologies have become more sophisticated and prevalent, there have been increasing concerns about bias in natural language processing (NLP). Such work often focuses on the effects of bias instead of sources. In contrast, this paper discusses how normative language assumptions and ideologies influence a range of automated language…

Replicating research originally performed with native speakers of English, this study investigated the mutability of vowels in Spanish. The study was based on the theory that when presented with non-words, native speakers are more likely to change the vowel than the consonant to arrive at an existing lexical item. It was hypothesized that if…

A brief summary of research findings which support the hypothesis of scriptal knowledge structures in children and which indicates that children use such structures in ways very similar to those of adults is provided in this paper. Research reveals that when children as young as three are asked to tell what they know about events, they tend to…

A study investigated the role of certain discourse and language processing factors in the production of narratives under controlled conditions. Subjects watched a short segment from a movie and then narrated the events to a researcher. The narrations were taped, transcribed, and analyzed in terms of such factors as: (1) the number and types of…

This document presents a study of natural language understanding of computer programs. In the study, the performance of IRUS, a natural language query system designed to interface with a database, was compared with the performance of preschool and early elementary school children in answering questions about a specific database. Questions used in…

A variety of techniques for collecting and analyzing information about the natural use of natural languages is surveyed, emphasizing the importance of recognizing the properties of a research task that make a given technique more or less suitable to it rather than comparing techniques globally and ranking them absolutely. An initial goal is to…

One perspective for literary analysis assumes certain divisions of language, grammar, and "worlds of discourse." The worlds that language can express are the phenomenal, extensional, intensional, and alternate systems. Within these contexts, certain linguistic features universally affect responses to the world created and the language used. One…

An investigation, analyzing the linking of skeleton and syntactical rules of Madurese, presents counterevidence to Marantz's claims about the nature of reduplication, and to Carrier-Duncan's claim that reduplication must precede all phonological rules. It is proposed that reduplication in Madurese is not affixation, as Marantz claims, and can be…

Attempts to clarify the notion of language competence and draws on its relevance to language teaching practices. Language use competence may involve the adjustment of pre-assembled and memorized patterns and not so much the generation of expressions by direct reference to rules. (Author/CB)

A discussion of pre-historic (i.e., preliterate) language looks at the processes of affixation and inflection in the context of two conflicting theories on the complexity of those languages. The traditional view holds that the grammar used by early Indo-Europeans was at least as complex and abstract as that of any modern educated and literate…

The phenomenon of language is discussed and suggestions are made for using its unique aspects to enhance classroom second language teaching and learning. Five main points are made about language: (1) it differs in kind, not simply in degree, from other species' communicative behaviors; (2) the wonder of human language is rivaled by only one other…

Traditionally, the study of language patterns has been viewed primarily in terms of rules of grammar and discourse and of vocabulary choice. Researchers are now exploring the nature of collocations, or patterns of word sequence or co-occurrence in discourse. Most of the attention has been focused on colorful collocations, not on more ordinary…

Describes attempts to formalize and characterize a theory of communicative competence, focusing on the advantages of a preference model (which identifies and grades learning variables in order of importance) and of models developed on the premise of parallel distributed processing (which suggest that such rule-based processing are in fact gross…

A study investigated language patterning, as an indication of synthetic mental activity, in comparison groups of normal pre-middle-aged adults (30-42 years), normal elderly adults (75-93), and elderly adults (71-91) with Alzheimer's dementia. Semiotic theory was used as the conceptual context. Linguistic measures included the Token Test, the…