Profiles of verbal learning and memory performance were compared for typically developing children and for four developmental disorders characterized by different patterns of language functioning: specific language impairment, early focal brain damage, Williams Syndrome, and Down Syndrome. A list-learning task was used that allowed a detailed…

This paper presents patterns of accentual alignment in two varieties of Spanish spoken in the Basque Country: Lekeitio Spanish (LS), with speakers whose other native language is Lekeitio Basque (LB); and Vitoria Spanish (VS), with monolingual speakers of Spanish from the city of Vitoria. These patterns are compared to those of Madrid Spanish (MS),…

Research and theory on language acquisition and language socialization are examined and compared. The language acquisition perspective is that the central question is how children acquire forms and patterns of language, with syntax at the core, so early and so rapidly. From the viewpoint of language socialization, the issue is not only of…

In an analysis of 20 scholarly journal articles in the hard sciences and 20 from the humanities, text was examined for author comments on hypotheses, probabilities, and evaluations. These include such expressions as "It cannot be denied, it seems likely, it was presumed," etc. Such comments were found to be somewhat more common in science-related…

An investigation of two sentence types in English and Spanish contrasts the syntactic features of each and examines the implications for second language instruction. Existential-presentative (ex-pr) and non-existential-presentative (pr) sentences are seen as an important tool for communication because they introduce an element that is…

A discussion of pre-historic (i.e., preliterate) language looks at the processes of affixation and inflection in the context of two conflicting theories on the complexity of those languages. The traditional view holds that the grammar used by early Indo-Europeans was at least as complex and abstract as that of any modern educated and literate…

Examines the sound-to-letter patterns of misspelling in a Danish child at ages seven and eight by comparing his misspellings with transcriptions of his pronunciation. (MSE)

This study analyzed the grammatical features of two classes of words in Japanese, adjectives and adjectival nouns. Both have functions similar to those of English adjectives, but their behaviors differ syntactically or morphologically from each other. Differences in psychological processes, evident in both lexical retrieval processes and native…

Using semantic analysis as a basis, examines the wide variety of syntactic and semantic functions of "got" and the parallel structures present in Spanish. (EKN)

Describes an informal study that yielded information about differences between good and poor sixth-grade spellers in their awareness that spelling involves prediction strategies and in their awareness of letter frequencies, pattern frequencies, and positional constraints on spelling. Outlines a few implications for spelling instruction. (GT)

Examines the distribution and productivity of different linguistic structures and patterns in one target language, French, and shows why this information is important when deciding the linguistic content of French second-language textbooks. (33 references) (GLR)

A study using spectrographic analysis investigated whether six university professors would modify the temporal organization of their speech when delivering identical lectures to low-proficiency and high-proficiency nonnative and native speaker groups. Results showed no significant modifications of speech rate; articulation differences were between…

Examines why the French verb of motion "passer" is used so much more widely in French than its English cognate "pass" is in English and identifies features of "passer" that distinguish it from similar motion verbs in French, concluding that the key is its relatively neutral semantic content. English avoids the…

Among both first- and second-generation immigrant groups in New Zealand and Australia, women maintain the ethnic language (EL) longer than men. Compared with men's networks, women's networks encourage more extensive use of EL in social interactions, and women value the social and affective functions expressed by EL. (Contains 71 references.…