This book, written in an informal dialogue style, develops the thesis that of all the significant forms of art and communication, language alone has remained bound by an outdated, rigid structure--"command grammar"--that inhibits thought and expression. The book explains how language may be freed through use of Neo-Narrative, an "open structure"…

The central thesis of this book is that the laws of traditional "command grammar" are an obstruction to expression and are too difficult for a majority of people to master, as demonstrated by a progressive deterioration in general literacy skills. The book contends that the structure of the sentence is at the source of the present difficulties. It…

Deliberately pedagogical in its orientation, this book presents the essentials of English structure in a framework derived from modern linguistic theory and in a way that should be comprehensible to beginning students. The book is intended to offer students an understanding of what is involved in the scholarly study of language as they acquire an…

This book includes 85 ideas for the teaching of grammar, contributed by teachers of English as a Second Language from varied countries. The ideas are organized in 10 sections that include specific aspects of grammar and grammar topics at the discourse level. These include: noun phrases and clauses (adjectives and nouns, articles, subject-verb…

This study investigated the hypothesis that in language contact situations, bilinguals develop strategies aimed at lightening the cognitive load of having to remember and use two different linguistic systems, resulting in changes in the secondary language. The study examined four specific strategies (simplification of grammatical categories and…

The book, designed as a textbook for introductory study of semantics within college-level linguistics, focuses on the study of meaning as it is systematically encoded in the vocabulary and grammar of natural languages. The term "semantics" is presumed here to include pragmatics. An introductory section explains fundamental theoretical and…

The textbook is designed as a self-contained introduction to English syntax, providing an overview of key theoretical concepts and descriptive devices used in contemporary linguistic work rather than a historical perspective and using varieties of English from around the world rather than other languages for illustration. Chapter topics include:…

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…

The syntax module of the language development curriculum portion of the Early Childhood-Special Education Teacher Preparation Program at the University of Virginia includes the following areas: (1) various aspects of syntax development as background for an outline of the ontogeny of syntax development in children 18-106 months of age; (2) syntax…

The research reported here focuses on the cognitive processes involved in creole genesis: relexification; reanalysis; dialect levelling; and parameter setting. The role of these processes in creole genesis is documented in a detailed comparison of Haitian Creole with two of its major source languages: French, its main lexifier language, and…

This teaching grammar is designed primarily for university-level students, but may also be used for adult courses, high school classes, and in junior colleges. The text takes the transformational-generative approach to language, in which the notions of system, derivation, and relation are emphasized rather than categorization and classification.…

The textbook provides an intensive introduction to recent work in syntactic theory within the minimalist framework. The approach taken is to presuppose no background knowledge of syntactic theory or historical linguistics. Rather than compare English with other languages, illustrations are drawn from varieties of English from around the world.…

The dictionary of the Ojibwa or Chippewa language represents the speech of the Mille Lacs Band of Minnesota and contains over 7,000 Ojibwa terms. Each entry gives information on the word stem, grammatical classification, English gloss, form variations, and references to alternate forms. An introductory section describes the entry format and use,…

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…

The book is a typological study of grammatical roles, such as agent, patient, beneficiary, and of grammatical relations, such as subject (direct) and indirect object. In addition it is concerned with the devices, such as the passive, that alter the identities in such roles and relations. Its objective is to suggest a consistent and reasonably…