Investigated five-year-olds' abilities to determine the reference of anaphoric pronouns. Children had difficulty when a sentence contained more than one pronoun, especially when assigning the reference of a pronoun requiring an inference. The children's difficulties stemmed from forgetting premise information and from having problems in carrying…

The hypothesis that the linguis complexity of pronouns corresponds to the order in which children acquire them was studied. Linguistic complexity was defined by proximal-nonproximal, singular-nonsingular, and speaker-nonspeaker contrasts. Results showed a strong correspondence between the predicted and actual order of correct use of pronouns.…

Reports of recent original research on linguistics by faculty and students of the University of Kansas are presented. Topics include: "Collaboration on Topic Change in Conversation" (Mary Howe); "Stories in Conversation" (Roberta Senner Hofer); "It's Like, 'What's Happening in the Evolution of Like?': A Theory of…

The Australian aboriginal language Kuuku Ya'u and its closely related dialect Umpila are described. An introductory chapter provides information on the classification of the languages, linguistic type, and dialect groups. The second chapter outlines aspects of the phonology of Kuuku Y'au and Umpila, including phonemes, vowel length, consonant…

Examines the spontaneous speech of Portuguese-speaking two-year olds in natural conversation with Portuguese-speaking adults. The children were separated into three groups based on Mean Length of Utterance in Words (MLUW). The children in the highest-MLUW group almost perfectly matched the adult speakers on every measure. (37 references)…

Examines why learners of Mandarin use overt nouns and pronouns to a greater extent than native speakers. Findings indicate that no single syntactic structure is a significant contributor to the different rates of optional ellipsis but that some learners use ellipsis only in syntactic contexts permissible in English and most use it in a narrower…

This study investigated the extent to which various factors play a part in English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) students' ability to resolve pronoun-antecedent connections in reading. The subjects were 97 ESL learners with four different native languages (Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Spanish) enrolled in the University of Illinois's Intensive English…

This book describes the phonological and grammatical structure of the whole-Dravidian language family from different aspects, examining its history and writing system, structure and typology, lexicon, and recent contacts between Dravidian and other language groups. The 11 chapters highlight the following: (1) "Introduction" (e.g., the…

An analysis of Amuzgo, a language within the Otomanguean family of Mexico, suggests that it is an active-static language with patterns similar but not parallel to those of Chocho. In the report, data on the characteristics of Chocho are summarized, theory and research on active-static languages is reviewed, and the data on Amuzgo are presented.…

Discusses the ways languages of Europe render the "given"-"new" distinction on the basis of data collected by means of presenting speakers of various languages with the task of reconstructing a route on a map. The article raises questions about the nature of "wh"-pronouns in English and about what is shared by these…

Examines the variable realization of the third person singular present tense by learners of English as a Second Language at elementary and intermediate levels of proficiency in unplanned discourse in South Africa. (35 references) (Author/CK)

The workbook is designed for teaching Melanesian Pidgin English (Tokpisin) sentence structure to Peace Corps volunteers. It addresses sentence structures that are common to most languages, and uses listening, speaking, translation, and other grammar drills and exercises to reinforce learning. The approach used assumes that a native speaker is…

A study examined the written English proficiency of Windsor, Ontario francophone eighth-graders being educated entirely in French and compared it to norms for English-speaking eighth-grade children educated in English or French. Results suggest that these francophone students compare favorably with anglophone groups in syntactic maturity and…

Papers on Spanish bilingualism and Spanish in contact with other languages include: "The Study of Language Contact: An Overview of the Issues" (Carmen Silva-Corvalan); "Language Mixture: Ordinary Processes, Extraordinary Results" (Sarah G. Thomason); "The Impact of Quichua on Verb Forms Used in Spanish Requests in Otavalo,…