This paper analyzes some of the ambiguities that arise among statements with the copular verb "is" in the mathematical language of textbooks as compared to day-to-day English language. We identify patterns in the construction and meaning of "is" statements using randomly selected examples from corpora representing the two…

Gibson's Dependency Locality Theory (DLT) [Gibson, E. 1998. "Linguistic complexity: locality of syntactic dependencies." "Cognition," 68, 1-76; Gibson, E. 2000. "The dependency locality theory: A distance-based theory of linguistic complexity." In A. Marantz, Y. Miyashita, & W. O'Neil (Eds.), "Image,…

Based on a paper written in 1965 for a committee preparing textbook materials for the English Language Institute (ELI). Revised version appeared as "ELI Research Papers, 1968, number 1. (DS)

This study attempts to bring together most of the information about the transformational analysis of the grammar of English that was available up through the summer of 1968, and to integrate it into a single coherent format. The format chosen is that of C. Fillmore (the "Deep Case" hypothesis) combined with the "Lexicalist" hypothesis of N.…

This paper proposes a set of hypotheses on the nature of interrogration as a possible language universal. Examples and phrase structure rules and diagrams are given. Examining Tamazight and English, genetically unrelated languages with almost no contact, the author distinguishes two types of interrogation: (1) general, querying acceptability to…

This manual attempts to establish a hierarchy or sequence within the study of syntax. It is to serve as a textbook, and has as its aim the discussion and explanation of the structure of the correct "properly formatted" sentence. The approach is to begin with "text" and gradually work down. This tendency to begin syntactic research with the global…

An attempt to shed some light on one type of linguistic structure, that structure which is sometimes called a structure of modification, is presented. The study is based on a fairly limited, but statistically ample corpus of 1,200 sentences taken from four metropolitan daily newspapers for the two years 1894 and 1964. From various sources a…

This textbook provides support for learners of British Sign Language (BSL) and others interested in the structure and use of BSL, and assumes no previous knowledge of linguistics or sign language; technical terms and linguistic jargon are kept to a minimum. The text contains many examples from English, BSL, and other spoken and signed languages,…

This study hypothesized that recent experience with a set of words is a strong influence on selecting words in an appropriate context where other lexical items are equally available for selection, i.e., recency training should significantly increase the probability of occurrence of words chosen to fill gaps in structured sentences. Two experiments…

This volume brings together the majority of lectures and papers presented at the 1998 and 1999 discourse symposia at Vaxjo University. Part one, "Four Perspectives on Discourse," offers a matrix perspective on narrative, a cross cultural perspective on academic rhetoric, a cognitive perspective on informational discourse, and a construction…

In an attempt to apply recent developments in transformational grammar to Latin syntax, this report analyzes first English, then Latin sentences for both deep and surface structures through transformational and phrase structure grammar methods. Auxiliary nodes, problems of Latin verb complimentation, and the gerund and gerundive constructions are…