This paper studies the role of two different types of motivation that have been proposed to explain the use of subject personal pronouns in Spanish, namely their function as indications for the addressee to identify the subject's referent, and their suitability for expressing informational values such as contrastiveness or focus. This study…

The data on language acquisition in children with specific language impairment (SLI) primarily come from studies in English reporting particular morphemes that differentiate them from their typically developing (TYP) peers, but markers of impairment vary cross-linguistically. There is some cross-linguistic evidence that SLI disrupts language…

This volume contains a selection of papers presented at the 2014 International Conference of Pragmatics and Language Learning at Indiana University. It includes fourteen papers on a variety of topics, with a diversity of first and second languages, and a wide range of methods used to collect pragmatic data in L2 and FL settings. This volume is…

The widespread use of cell phones has led to the proliferation of messages sent using the Short Messaging Service (SMS). The 160-character limit on text messages encourages the use of shortenings and other shortcuts in language use. When bilingual speakers use SMS, their access to multiple sources of vocabulary, sentence structure, and other…

Presents a preliminary study of the use of the Spanish preposition "a" with inanimate direct object nouns (DOs). The properties of such constructions at the lexical, sentence, and discourse levels are described, and the general principles that condition the preposition's appearance are discussed. (21 references) (GLR)

The paper discusses the Spanish expression "bueno," which marks the beginning or the end of background and assertion self-repairs in conversation, and often co-occurs with other expressions, such as "viste" and "no?" which mark the other end of the repair. Background repairs provide information the speaker considers necessary for the hearer to…

This article uses an animate/inanimate distinction in "se" constructions in Spanish to explain how to comprehend the messages conveyed by such constructions. Depending on the verb form, the emphasis may be on the event rather than the performer, or indicate that the speaker accepts no responsibility for the event. (CHK)

The mechanisms involved in the assignment of an antecedent to an anaphoric element are examined. Taken together, four experiments suggest that conceptual, although grammatically illegal, anaphors do not cause comprehensive difficulties. (Author/LB)

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…

Discusses the subtle changes of meaning evoked by different sentence positions of "hace"-clauses. Analyzes the semantics of "hace" + TIME sentences which are the equivalent of English "ago." A presentation suitable for the beginning learner, using "since" + TIME as the English translation of the "hace"-clause followed by "que" is suggested.…

Compares Spanish and English essays written by bilingual writers. Describes each writer's discourse-organizational and clausal-combining strategies. Suggests that organization on the discourse level is reflected in the type of clausal combinations chosen by the writers at the sentence level. (TB)

Indirect object doubling is the use of the pronoun "le" with a corresponding noun phrase within the same sentence ("Le regalo el anillo a Karen"). Redefining pronominalization as verb agreement leads to hypotheses that explain the construction's use within discourse. Data from an Argentine novel shows correlations between…

Analysis of basilang speech (in terms of word order, reference to time, and reference to space) of Chinese, Spanish, and Japanese speakers of English as a second language indicated that oriental subjects tended not to use prepositions and that Spanish-speaking subjects tended to use "in" to express most locative meanings. (Author/CB)

The Spanish tense system was chosen as a starting point to establish the systematic character of the Spanish used in situations of intense code switching between Spanish and English. The tense system was chosen for two reasons: (1) the distinction among past tenses (in particular, the imperfect indicative vs. the preterite and the past continuous)…

Examination of the development of form/function relations of the prepositions "por" and "para" at different levels of proficiency in the interlanguage of study-abroad students in Granada, Spain, revealed "noncanonical" as well as "canonical" uses of these prepositions. The most common noncanonical uses were…