In this preliminary report the authors compare a part of the phonological systems of Akuapem, Asante, and Fante--the major dialects of Akan. The comparison reveals the features common to all three dialects as well as the features which distinguish the dialects from one another. The description of the phonological systems of these dialects is…

In the years following the appearance of Noam Chomsky's book, "Syntactic Structures," in 1957, transformational grammarians modified and improved his initial model of language. The notion of a deep structure of meaning underlying a sentence's surface structure was revised to embody elements representing negation, command, and interrogation, and to…

Standard manuals of Spanish pronunciation recognize that both [+continuant] and [-continuant] surface variants occur for the voiced obstruents/bdg/. Within generative phonology, it has been assumed that the systematic phonemic representation for these voiced obstruents should be [-continuant] /bdg/, with a rule of spirantization converting these…

This paper concerns which aspects of speech articulation belong to phonology and which aspects belong to phonetics. The authors deal primarily with physiological criteria, and consider examples of assimilation and its phonological or phonetic relevance. Co-articulation and reduction are also considered; they are viewed as factors responsible for…

This paper considers Spanish adjectives and the possibility of converting some adjectives into adverbs, keeping the same general significance of a sentence. The conversion of an adjective into an adverb under these circumstances can be accomplished through a transformation which can be applied to a particular logical-semantic structure. The author…

The autosegmental rule of vowel harmony (VH) in Palestinian Arabic is shown to be constrained simultaneously by metrical and segmental boundaries. The indicative prefix bi- is no longer an exception to VH if a structure is assumed that disallows the prefix from sharing a foot with the stem, consequently blocking VH. (Author/LMO)

The distinction between artifact and tool is introduced into the study of language diversity and the posting of linguistic universals. A complicating factor in all language investigations is the use of language as the chief tool to create new language. Analogy and metaphor are considered as two major creative forces at work in all languages.…

This work reports on an initial study of the possibility of providing a suitable framework for the teaching of a foreign language grammar through string analysis, using French as the target language. Analysis of a string word list (word-class sequences) yields an overall view of the grammar. Details are furnished in a set of restrictions which…