Resultative constructions show a wide range of cross-linguistic variation, which may pose nontrivial challenges to L2 learners. This study investigates how syntactic and semantic differences between L1 and L2 affect L2 acquisition of resultatives. In particular, we investigate how L1-Korean learners project the syntax and semantics of L2-English…

This paper describes how a constraint dependency grammar (CDG) parser performs a syntactic analysis of a single sentence (as part of a speech recognition system). The paper extends an existing CDG (developed by H. Maruyama) to process a lattice or graph of sentence hypotheses instead of separate text strings. The paper also describes how the CDG…

Vygotsky's views on how language is instrumental in bringing about advanced forms of intellectual functioning offer a researchable framework from which to study this development. Developmentalists in psychology and linguistics have focused for too long on continuities rather than on the process of change in mental growth. The study of the…

The role of context in language is so obvious that, paradoxically, it often goes unnoticed by students who are studying it. Newspaper headlines (real and contrived) can be used to demonstrate to students the context dependency of language. The simplest version of such a demonstration takes 5 minutes; the longest version takes about 20 minutes.…

A discussion of language development and its role in the educational process focuses on the ways in which children use language to order experience. It is proposed that if human experience is construed in the form of language, then the way in which language is acquired can give insight into the fundamental nature of learning. These conclusions are…

Critical linguistics, an area of study within linguistics that has developed since the 1970s, is discussed. Critical linguistics argues that different groups, societies, and ideologies have different understandings of reality because they classify and categorize with and through language in different ways. Therefore, meaning is not something…

The role of court judges as linguists is discussed. Linguistic issues arise in courts when lawyers attempt to convince a court that a statute, insurance policy, or contract should be interpreted as favoring their own client's interests, with respect to resolving a dispute that depends on the proper construal of a particular document. An…

Some of the metaphors that continue to guide educators' ways of understanding classroom life and education research have conceptual boundaries and limitations. These metaphors are referred to as Cartesian in order to locate them historically and within a cultural setting. The first type of metaphor serves as a conduit of language, in which…

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…

Quotations from immigrants to Canada are used to illustrate some of the processes of second language learning within a very different culture: awareness of the environment's newness, first impressions, sense of nationality, broken images, initial confusion and bewilderment, concepts of nearness and remoteness, gradual understanding, and emotional…

This paper discusses the relationship between mother tongue, foreign language, and thinking. It is based on a pilot study carried out with 30 Finnish university students majoring in English philology. All students filled in a questionnaire and four were selected for an interview. In the questionnaires and interviews, the students were asked to…

A study of the relationship of bilingualism to personality traits focused on two questions: (1) are any language-associated differences between memory systems in bilinguals reflected in similar differences in personality structures?; and (2) if such differences exist, can they be tapped by comparing responses to personality-evoking stimulus in the…

Language is used to realize different intentions, and the patterns of wording that have evolved in language bear a natural relationship to the meanings they have evolved to express. Despite the diversity in the way texts (content) are encoded, they may be traced to the contexts in which they communicate meaning, indicating a form-function…

A study investigated the use of content-based tasks as central and peripheral in second language instruction. Specifically, it examined the relative effects of such tasks that were either central to the syllabus, as sources of knowledge or skills in their own right, or peripheral, as occasional source of language practice. The study was conducted…