This research investigated three synonymous adjectives "perfect," "flawless," and "impeccable" in terms of meaning, degree of formality, collocations, and grammatical patterns. The three synonymous adjectives were scrutinized through the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA). The findings suggested that these…

This article contributes to existing studies that are concerned with standardisation and supralocalisation processes in the development of written English during the Early Modern English period. By focussing on and comparing civic records and letter data from important regional urban centres, notably Bristol, Coventry and York, from the period…

This paper presents the results of a multidimensional analysis to investigate stylistic patterns and their communicative functions in language teaching research articles. The findings were that language teaching research articles contained six stylistic patterns and communicative functions. Pattern I consisted of seven salient positive features…

This discussion of gender constructs compares them with racial constructs, and examines ways in which language tends to dichotomize or polarize them, and to reject ambiguity as unacceptable. Other curiosities about sexual categorization are noted, including the fact that femaleness is subsumed under the category of "man," which in turn…

Considers the frequently indefinable distinctions between descriptive and prescriptive English grammars, using examples of standard English and dialects to illustrate the uses of each. (Author/CB)

The goal of this paper is to explore the ramifications of a nontraditional view of cognition and social interaction for the study of grammatical structure. (Contains 77 references.) (JL)

Learnability theory is an attempt to illuminate the concept of learnability using a mathematical model of learning. Two models of learning of categorial grammars are examined here: the standard model, in which sentences presented to the learner are flat strings of words, and one in which sentences are presented in the form of functor-argument…

This paper surveys work on applying the insights of lexicalized grammars to low-level discourse, to show the value of positing an autonomous grammar for low-level discourse in which words (or idiomatic phrases) are associated with discourse-level predicate-argument structures or modification structures that convey their syntactic-semantic meaning…

Tracing Appalachian speech to different areas of the British Isles entailed researching hard-to-find linguistic studies and original texts in Belfast, Edinburgh, and other locations. The Scotch-Irish contribution significantly outweighs that from Southern Britain and appears much more responsible for the grammatical features of Appalachian…

The introduction to systemic functional linguistics explores the social semiotic approach to language most closely associated with the work of Michael Halliday and his colleagues. An approach that views language as a strategic, meaning-making resource, systemic linguistics focuses on the analysis of authentic, everyday texts and asks both how…

Discusses the ellipsis of major sentential elements as a pervasive grammatical phenomenon in Japanese conversation and demonstrates its relevance for current theories of discourse or text analysis. (FL)

A reassessment of the role of negative evidence in nonnative language acquisition argues that the grammar-building process cannot make use of negative evidence to restructure interlanguage grammars, and that second-language learners do not unlearn verb movement but extend the pattern with which they are already familiar. (46 references) (Author/CB)

This article reviews the cultural and linguistic background of Asian Indians in the United States. It highlights some of the phonological, grammatical, semantic, and vocabulary usage peculiarities of the variety of English called Indian English spoken by immigrants from the Indian subcontinent. (Author/DB)

Discusses various definitions of markedness in terms of second language acquisition and describes a study testing one such definition which found that second language learners did not accept preposition stranding in the second language but did accept double object construction and suggested that transfer took place only with one of two marked…

Describes rules for the use and interpretation of "verbally determinate ellipsis" involving the English verb group. Discussion covers: verbal determinacy and indeterminacy; verb group vs. verb phrase; the verb group as a five-part system; verb group echoing vs. auxiliary contrasting ellipsis; passive auxiliary; interpretation rules;…