The aim of this paper is to challenge the generally accepted claim in descriptive and theoretical linguistics that English anaphoric proforms replace constituents (semantic or syntactic units) in underlying representation. On the basis of authentic examples, it is shown that the anaphoric use of the predicative proforms "one" and "do so", the…

How does the developing child bridge the ontological gap from the empirical, measurable world of behavioral patterns, anatomical structures, and neurological processes to the world of the linguistic phenomena referred to by the expressions of commonsense metalinguistic discourse: words, meanings, names, truth, languages, understanding, and so on?…

Hobbs [Hobbs, J.R., 1979. "Coherence and coreference." "Cognitive Science" 3, 67-90] claims that the interpretation of inter-sentential anaphors "falls out" as a "by-product" of using a particular coherence relation to integrate two discourse units. The article argues that this is only partly true. Taking the reader's perspective, I suggest that…

Presents observations concerning the meaning of discourse particles, based on the comparison of an item in one language with its functional equivalents in another. The article considers three languages: English, French, and German, and concludes that contrastive analyses can only indicate certain aspects that must be verified by further…

Addresses the topic of discourse markers and, using the concepts of denial and contrast, with modifications, examines markers of contrast in English and Spanish. The article shows that the markers in each language correspond very closely in what they signal about the interpretation of the utterances of which they are a part. (Nine references)…

Investigates the developments of "strengthened" possessives such as "hers" and "hern" (earlier her) through a fresh examination of a substantial number of Middle English texts. While the "s" forms developed in different ways, both resulted in a processing advantage, as they signal to the hearer that no head…

Discusses the tradition of argument about what forms of metalinguistic discourse are valid, useful, and significant in the era of modern Western linguistics, with particular reference to the argument between linguistic science and prescriptivism. The article emphasizes that linguistic norms are open to challenge and change about what their nature…

Discusses the intricacies of text analysis as approached by computer-assisted corpus linguistics, focusing on meaning relations in the text. The article points out that it is possible to distinguish several different approaches, according to whether the focus is on intralingual or interlingual parallel texts. (12 references) (Author/CK)

Describes a model that allows children to control the complexity of the speech they hear within conversations on a moment-to-moment basis. Experimental and observational data clearly delineate the reciprocal nature of how speakers "fine-tune" their speech to listeners. The effects of child-directed speech on language development are discussed.…

Discusses the fact that the conditional mood has wider distribution in Czech than in Russian as far as its meaning and use are concerned. An analysis of this phenomenon is proposed that makes use of many aspects and dimensions such as the relation between two propositions in an "if...then" construction, the "alternative…

Examines "it"-clefts and "wh"-clefts in English and their Chinese equivalents in a universal, functional perspective that consists of assigning "participant roles" in processing a clause. The analysis shows that a functionally-oriented and semantically-motivated approach to the focusing constructions provides greater insight into the discourse…

Demonstrates the similarities between English and Farsi with respect to discourse-functional constraints on inversion. It is argued that this phenomenon is significant because these two languages exhibit different canonical word order and thus expectations can be raised from some functional-syntactic universals. (15 references) (Author/CK)

Examines newspaper statements about a politician, describing their rhetorical work in the political context and suggesting that the three segments of the articles were conceptually distant texts due to the degree of ambiguity that made an insider reading difficult for foreigners. The paper discusses the double exposure needed to arrive at a…

Presents a study based on the analysis of contrastive Swedish-English data on modal particles. The article maintains that the meaning of modal particles requires an analysis of their pragmatic aspects such as the relation between the interlocutors. The analysis most accurately accounting for the multifunctionality of the particles is based on a…

Focuses on personal pronouns in business discourse, using data from four business meetings: formal and informal, in Dutch and in Italian. The article focuses on the pronouns "I" and "we," commenting on the frequency of Dutch inclusive "we," absent from the Italian data. The article also discusses indexical and…