Actualization is traditionally seen as the process following syntactic reanalysis whereby an item's new syntactic status manifests itself in new syntactic behavior. The process is gradual in that some new uses of the reanalyzed item appear earlier or more readily than others. This article accounts for the order in which new uses appear during…

The reconstruction of genealogical relationships between languages is traditionally performed through lexical comparison and the establishment of regular sound changes. The historical analysis of other aspects of linguistic structure, like syntactic patterns or the function of grammatical elements, is normally understood to depend on a previously…

Because many of the forms participating in inherent variability are not attested in the standard language, they are often construed as evidence of change. We test this assumption by confronting the standard, as instantiated by a unique corpus covering five centuries of French grammatical injunctions, with data on the evolution of spontaneous…

Computer-based multidimensional scaling techniques are used to determine the dimensionality of grammatical variation in three large sets of data: Ross' (1973) Noun Phrase and fake Noun Phrase data; Sankoff's (1974) complementizer "que"-deletion (Montreal French) data; and Cedergren's (1973) syllable-final S-reduction (Panamanian Spanish) data. (DB)

Presents a theory of phonological adjacency requirements. Locality theory is defined by a universal locality condition, which requires elements to be within a plane, the adjacency parameter, which in turn allows rules to impose further constraints on the maximal distance between interacting segments, and by transplanar locality, which bans certain…

Uses a detailed analysis of a single grammatical problem to present the principal commitments and mechanisms of a grammatical theory that assigns a central role to the notion of grammatical construction. The grammatical phenomenon used to introduce construction grammar is the construction that licenses the surprising syntactic and semantic…

Discusses a theory that quotations are demonstrations that are component parts of language use. Demonstrations are described as unlike descriptions in two main ways: they are serious rather than nonserious, and they depict rather than describe their referents. (69 references) (JL)

This article examines the variable absence of the verb in "as far as" constructions, which serve as qualifiers or topic restrictors in English. (46 references) (Author/CK)

The principal nominal deictic affixes of Bella Coola, a Salishan language of British Columbia, are examined. (Author/RM)

Introduces the theory that the conversational historical present (CHP) in itself has no significance. It is the switching between CHP and the past tenses that is the relevant feature. (Author/CFM)

One important function of the imperfective aspect in Modern Greek is to indicate indefinite repetition; when a modal element is present, however, the perfective may be selected instead. (Author/CFM)

Demonstrates through an examination of naturally occurring discourse that Wh-Clefts and It-Clefts are not interchangeable; they have highly specialized distributions and functions. (EJS)

Endangered languages, or languages on the verge of becoming extinct, are discussed in relation to the larger process of loss of cultural and intellectual diversity. This article summarizes essays presented at the 1991 Linguistic Society of America symposium, "Endangered Languages and Their Preservation." (11 references) (LB)

The Saussurean thesis of arbitrariness of the sign is considered incomplete since it specifies only vertical and not horizontal relations. (DD)