This study of the understanding of the words "and" and "or" in children, ages 2-7 1/2, indicates that "and" is used to express enumeration, and "or" to express alternatives, and that most children's responses are correct at age 4 and beyond. Differences between the linguistic and logical meaning of connection are discussed. (Author/LLK)

Part 1 of a two-part series; part 2 will be continued in the next issue of Yelmo". Paper read on the occasion of the author's election to the Royal Spanish Academy. (DS)

Several exercises are presented that are intended to challenge and "limber up" the translator's manipulation of words, meanings, and connotations. The exercises point up the complexity of the translating task and encourage the translator to make the most of this fact. The focus is on French and English. (MSE)

Infants learn their language by first determining, independent of language, the meaning which a speaker intends to convey to them, and by then working out the relationship between the meaning and the expression they heard. (Author)

This study was conducted to examine the acquisition of the meaning of the temporal conjunctions "before" and "after." The initial hypothesis was that in the acquisition of a word, the child learns its semantic components one at a time. The subjects were 40 school children attending the Bing Nursery School at Stanford…

It is the contention here that the "prelinguistic" period is an important phase of the language acquisition process. Accordingly the research reported represents an attempt to begin mapping out the types of linguistically relevant information to which a young child attends. Specifically it is hypothesized that young children are…

Active and passive sentences were presented with probable and improbable semantic content to 100 first graders and 100 kindergartners. "Irreversible" sentences were considered improbable. In a design employing syntax, probability, grade, and sex as factors, probability and syntax were found significant both as main effects and in their…

The major purpose of this paper is to initiate discussion on the validity of systematic phonemics in the area of language acquisition. This is not an attempt to write a phonology, but rather an outline of some theoretical and formal devices that may be used for gaining insight into the phonological system of the child. An evaluation procedure…

A phenomenon called "pragmatic variation" is discussed as a child's individual system of behavior in response to a question the child doesn't understand but realizes that he must verbalize an answer to. (NCR)

By the time many poor children enter school, the best educators can do is prepare them for nonexistent unskilled jobs. Remedial programs cannot compensate for deficiencies in early intellectual development. A study involving 42 families showed that well-educated mothers spoke more to their 3-year-olds, did more explaining, asked more questions,…

Five experiments are carried out to determine the comprehension of passives by children. Results obtained demonstrate that comprehension rests on knowledge of syntactic structure. V - NP were interpreted as verb-object. Passives lacking a preposition were interpreted as actives. Competence in passives may be at a high level before performance is…

The present study aimed: (1) to systematically describe and classify the speech input received by children of specified ages from their mothers in the home, (2) to investigate the interdependence between the quality of the mother's speech, her socio-cultural background, and her children's level of intelligence, and (3) to determine whether some…

A total of 224 subjects participated in a study to determine how children and adults comprehend logical connectives. Specifically, the study examined the effects of age, content, and practice on the encoding and combination of logical relationships expressed by six types of logical connectives: conjunction, disjunction, conditionality,…