We assessed whether and under what conditions noncanonical agreement patterns occur in Russian, with the goal of understanding the factors involved in normal agreement. Russian is a morphosyntactically rich language in which agreement involves features for number, gender, and case. If consistent, overt specification of number and gender agreement…

Using a particular sentence type--an exclamative construction referred to as "Nominal Extraposition" (NE)--this article outlines a formal model in which grammatical description includes the description of use conditions on form-meaning pairs. The article suggests that the relationship between NE and like exclamatives can be represented in an…

Inverted sentence order (order other than subject-verb-object) may be used to mimic the rhythm of real dialogue; give the play-by-play announcer time to come up with the player's name; indicate the relative importance of the subject, verb, and object; distribute information; and indicate connection with prior information. As a stylistic option,…

This paper examines the role of movable adverbs in Mandarin Chinese. In terms of their position within a sentence, most Mandarin adverbs can be classified as movable or non-movable. While identification of either class may be based on their semantic categories or on the number of syllables, the motivation for placing a movable adverb in front of…

Explains how grammars and textbooks can present the formal tense relations of English in a concise, uncomplicated way. (PM)

Grammatical agreement flags the parts of sentences that belong together regardless of whether the parts appear together. In English, the major agreement controller is the sentence subject, the major agreement targets are verbs and pronouns, and the major agreement category is number. The authors expand an account of number agreement whose tenets…

Part of a continuing series. (DS)

In a study of binding relations of reflexive anaphors, it is suggested that a nonsyntactic aspect of language plays a role; i.e., viewpoint in sentence processing. This notion may help specify the type of evidence that can trigger learners' progress in the acquisition of the English reflexive. (Contains 33 references.) (Author/LB)

The grammar which is concerned with meaning (the province of New Semantics), with its foundations in our perceptions of the surrounding world, can be learned in the elementary classroom through storytelling. Understanding of the sentence concept develops by allowing the child to use his language responsively and deliberately to organize the world…

Defines the difference between lexical and propositive nomination, and examines their interrelation. Clarification of syntactic problems allowed for by distinguishing nominative and communicative aspects of a sentence is discussed, and the relationship of semantic syntax to traditional syntactic theory is also discussed. (RM)

At the beginning of this study a chart is given to illustrate the 13 basic verb forms of Dari (the term given to Persian spoken in Afghanistan). The verbs are then described individually in terms of their usage in sentences. The approach combines form and function to an extent not normally attempted in grammar. Two hundred forty-four verb…

A review of analyses of conditionals (in the philosophical literature) and of topics (primarily in linguistics) reveals that their definitions are very similar. This paper justifies the method of basing semantic analysis of a construction on a cross-linguistic examination of its superficial form. (Author/NCR)

Discusses the difficulty of describing the linguistic approach to the study of language to a non-linguist. Points out certain differences between traditional grammar, structural analysis and contemporary language analysis and gives a short description of the notion of generative grammar. (Text is in Spanish.) (TL)