The article traces the history of comparative linguistics, noting a continual increase in the breadth of such studies. It then considers the related fields of typological-comparative linguistics and confrontative linguistics, their differences and similarities in methodology and application. (Text is in German.) (DH)

The paper investigates the problems of assembling, describing and computerizing corpora, defined as collections of "texts assumed to be representative of a given language, dialect or other subject of a language, to be used for linguistic analysis." Specific reference is made to the formation of the Brown Standard Corpus. The formation of…

Examines different hypotheses on the origin of the Creoles of the Indian Ocean, and common lexical and phonological bonds among them. (AM)

A discussion of the sources of certain language universals argues that adjective/noun constructions pattern similarly to genitive/noun and relative-noun constructions because they are typical diachronic sources for adjectivals, and that relatives and genitives have the same diachronic source and thus the same set of synchronic behavior. It is also…

This paper examines the semantic and structural characteristics of a basic pattern in English and discusses Spanish equivalents. A sentence-by-sentence analysis is made with consideration of transformations on the basic patterns in both languages. Translation and transformation complications in the two languages are illustrated. The equivalence…

Addresses some of the problems concerning the hierarchical relationship between language typology and genetic linguistics and between typology and universal grammar. (RM)

The relation of the linguistic sciences to language teaching and language learning is explored. Part 1 discusses linguistics, phonetics, and their place in the description of language. Relations between language and the people who use it are examined, as well as the place of comparison and translation in the acquisition of a second language. Part…

Systematic and chance similarities between Thai and English are illustrated and discussed. The argument is made that a comparative analysis, which highlights the systematic similarities underlying the two languages, is as important in second language pedagogy as the more commonly found contrastive analysis. (Text is in Thai.) (Author/KM)

Syntagmatic relationships receive less attention than paradigmatic relationships in the development and study of index languages. Exposes misperceptions in linguistic characterization of syntagmatic relationships, and proposes the expansion to include conceptual syntagmatic relationships (CSRs), and characterizes CSRs to determine their role in…

This paper discusses the relationship between linguistic reconstructions and their historical validity using the case of Old Japanese (8th century A.D.) vowels as an example. Reconstructions throughout the paper include only those cases in which the modern reflexes and phonological correspondences between two or more genetically related languages…

An examination of the place of American English in the research of William Dwight Whitney and Leonard Bloomfield focuses on the divergence of their approaches to language. A review of their works looks at the way in which Whitney's interest in American English complemented his other strong interests (the social and political setting for language…

This study is based on a sample of about 100 languages with numeral classifiers. An attempt is made at reconstructing the dynamics of the process by which such systems arise, develop, and decay. Among the hypotheses advanced are the following: (1) numeral classifiers involve the overt expression of one kind of quantification, namely, counting by…

The authors respond to Dresher and Hornstein's article (EJ 161 384, Cognition, December, 1976) on artificial intelligence (AI). The dispute between linguistic theorists and AI researchers is based upon their different aims; while AI researchers develop programs capable of intelligent behavior, transformational linguists study the characteristics…