The nature of grammatical relations such as subject and object are examined. The ways in which subjects differ from language to language are described and the way in which a language can do without a subject relation is revealed. Three primitive functional properties of sentences which underlie the syntactic relations of subject and topic are…

Analyzes the rhetorical functions carried out by the selection of voice--active, passive, or "se"-passive--in biological research articles in Spanish. The author compares these rhetorical functions with those found in French and English scientific papers and on the basis of this comparison, suggests the existence of some universals. (18…

Every sentence conveys a temporal point of view through its aspectual meaning. This viewpoint arises through presenting a situation from a certain temporal perspective and indirectly classifying the situation as an exemplar of an idealized situation type. The information is conveyed by the aspectual categories of a language. This paper presents a…

In one essay of this collection of four, Kenneth L. Pike explores the value of exercises which are based on axioms about language structure and which are designed specifically to develop writing competence; he lists eight tagmemic principles accompanied by suggested exercises. In another essay, Pike differentiates the roles of linguist and…

This general bibliography on discourse and related topics lists over 350 books, articles, and papers, written between 1912 and 1971, covering a great variety of linguistic problems and issues. The subjects range from general topics such as "Nouns and Noun Phrases" and "Language as Symbolization" to such specialized articles as "Samoan…

The source of syntactic ambiguity and facts concerning the resolution of such ambiguity are discussed in this paper. The attitude of qenerative linguists towards ambiguity is examined, and a working distinction is drawn between vaqueness and ambiguity. The consequences of this distinction are then examined for syntactic ambiguity and an ordering…

This study of hierarchy and universality in the languages of New Guinea seeks to describe and place the run-on surface structures found in those languages. In the process, traditional stereotypes of "sentence" and "paragraph" are questioned and revised, while hierarchy -- a fundamental characteristic of language -- is shown to…

This volume accompanies and illustrates "Hierarchy and Universality of Discourse Constituents in New Guinea Languages: Discussion" (FL 003 513), which reports on research carried out in New Guinea and surrounding areas. This volume provides sample texts, over and beyond the fragmentary examples given in the discussion text. The examples…