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Takahara, Paul O. – Language Sciences, 1979
Investigates the functional nature of the communication process observed in interactions of English-speaking and Japanese-speaking children from the two-word stage onward, with special attention to the given/new contract and pragmatic factors. (Author/AM)
Descriptors: Child Language, Discourse Analysis, English, Japanese
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Huang, Guowen; Fawcett, Robin P. – Language Sciences, 1996
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…
Descriptors: Chinese, Contrastive Linguistics, Discourse Analysis, English
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Goddard, Cliff – Language Sciences, 1995
Working within the natural semantic metalanguage (NSM) framework of Anna Wierzbicka, this study proposes reductive paraphrase explications for a range of first-person pronominal meanings. It is argued that NSM explications are preferable to conventional feature analysis because they are less subject to charges of arbitrariness and obscurity and…
Descriptors: Connected Discourse, Deep Structure, Discourse Analysis, Language Patterns
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Birner, Betty; Mahootian, Shahrzad – Language Sciences, 1996
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)
Descriptors: Contrastive Linguistics, Discourse Analysis, English, Nouns
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Suleiman, Saleh M. – Language Sciences, 1989
Investigates the pragmatic functions of topicalizing subject (S) and object (O) in Standard Arabic and attempts to find a functional explanation for the occasional preposing/topicalization of S and/or O over the verb (V) to yield a construction in the form of SVO order or any other order sanctioned by the rules of Arabic grammar. (22 references)…
Descriptors: Arabic, Discourse Analysis, Grammar, Language Research
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Hofmann, Thomas R. – Language Sciences, 1974
Descriptors: Communication (Thought Transfer), Content Analysis, Discourse Analysis, Grammar
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Eriksson, Mats – Language Sciences, 1995
Describes the grammaticalization of the Swedish word "bara" (English "just") in present-day adolescent speech. "Bara" has in the last 15 years been used with 2 new functions in spoken, narrative discourse: to foreground central events and to introduce quotations. (40 references) (Author/CK)
Descriptors: Adjectives, Adolescents, Discourse Analysis, Foreign Countries
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Aijmer, Karen – Language Sciences, 1996
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…
Descriptors: Cognitive Processes, Communication (Thought Transfer), Contrastive Linguistics, Discourse Analysis
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Fretheim, Thorstein; Vasko, Ildiko – Language Sciences, 1996
Compares the meanings of the English adverb "then," that is, at that time and after that, to their lexical equivalents in Hungarian and Norwegian, drawing conclusions in the spirit of Sperber and Wilson's relevance theory. Neither Hungarian nor Norwegian has a word that, like the English "then," neutralizes the distinction…
Descriptors: Adverbs, Bulgarian, Cognitive Processes, Contrastive Linguistics