Applies a taxonomic principle to analyze the gradual elaboration of any language or sign system as a technology of communication rather than the reflection of a specialized language faculty or cluster of language faculties. (Author/CB)

This study compared three methods for identifying non-mainstream dialect use: listener judgment ratings, type-based counts of non-mainstream pattern use, token- based counts. Correct dialect classifications were made for 88 to 97 percent of participants, although regression algorithms had to be applied to the type- and token-based results. For…

Outlines three features that render creoles synchronically distinguishable from other languages, all three clear results of a break in transmission followed by a development period too brief for the traits to be undone as they have been in older languages. Shows that an expanded data set reveals flaws in the socio-historical argumentation behind…

Previous evidence suggests that the structure of similarity neighbourhoods in the developing mental lexicon may differ from that of the fully developed lexicon. The similarity relationships used to organize words into neighbourhoods was investigated in 20 pre-school children (age 3;7 to 5;11) using a two alternative forced-choice classification…

The present paper assesses the implications of the existence of two varieties of the same language for contact-induced language change in cases of bilingualism. By analysing the contact between French and Tunisian Arabic, on the one hand, and Spanish and Northern Moroccan Arabic, on the other, the purpose is to illustrate how the coexistence of…

A discussion of Indo-European languages proposes that this language family is not genetically isolated but is distantly related to certain other language families of northern and central Eurasia, the Indian subcontinent, and the ancient Near East. The history of research into this macrofamily of languages, termed Nostratic, is reviewed, with notes…

The contributions of Peter Stephen DuPonceau and John Pickering to American linguistics in the early nineteenth century are reviewed and discussed. Despite their probable status as amateurs in the study of American Indian languages and their very limited fieldwork, they made some significant contributions to the general field of language studies…

Addresses some of the problems concerning the hierarchical relationship between language typology and genetic linguistics and between typology and universal grammar. (RM)

THE CAKAVIAN GROUP OF SERBO-CROATIAN DIALECTS CAN BE RECLASSIFIED USING SYNCHRONIC CRITERIA RATHER THAN TRADITIONALLY USED DIACHRONIC CRITERIA. THE APPROACH IS TYPOLOGICAL RATHER THAN GENETIC AND COMPARES THE NOMINAL MORPHOLOGICAL AND MORPHOPHONEMIC SYSTEMS OF SEVEN DIALECTS SELECTED TO PROVIDE A GEOGRAPHICAL SAMPLING OF THE CAKAVIAN GROUP.…

IN RECENT YEARS IT HAS BEEN DEMONSTRATED THAT A LARGE NUMBER OF THE LANGUAGES IN THE LINGUISTICALLY DIVERSIFIED SUB-SAHARAN AREA OF NORTHERN NIGERIA, THE NORTHERN CAMEROONS, AND THE CHAD REPUBLIC, INCLUDING MANY OF THE LANGUAGES OF THE JOS PLATEAU GROUP, CAN BE CLASSIFIED AS A SINGLE LINGUISTIC UNIT--THE CHAD FAMILY. BY USING THE TRADITIONAL…

The ten papers in this volume are largely revisions of papers presented at the Texas conference, held March 22-24, 1973. The first paper, "Against Universal Semantic Representation," by Gilbert Harman, argues against the need for (and the possibility of) a level of semantic representation in a theory of language. "Remarks on the…

The first part of this text for young students provides an introduction to the origins of language, the beginnings of writing, and the making of an alphabet. The second part, "Word Stories," presents the etymologies of over 100 common English words in simplified, nontechnical style. Special terms are explained in a prefatory section. A word and…

A particular aspect of syllable structure, length of syllable margins, was investigated with the aid of a Markov chain model. The model represented explicitly the dynamic relationship between types of syllable structure and the historical processes that affect them. It is proposed that the regularities concerning syllable types (universality of CV…

The reappearance of an old controversy on how best to analyze the Russian palatalized consonants prompts the author of this article to define the words "palatalization" and "palatal." Contrastive examples clarify phonetic terminology including the classifications of "labial voiced and voiceless palatalized stops,""labial voiced and voiceless…

Major concerns of this article are: (1) the American Indian languages and their preservation; (2) their role; (3) the possibilities of change; (4) the debate on classification; and (5) the unique language characteristics of certain tribes (the Nez Perce, the Noptinte Yokuts, the Shoshoni, the Malecite-Passamquoddy). (JC)