The current study investigates the expression of progressive and habitual aspect in second language Spanish, integrating theoretical insights from usage-based and concept-oriented approaches to second language acquisition, along with quantitative sociolinguistic methods. To address the full breadth of forms involved, the study examines variation…

We examine the syntactic structures exhibited by persons with dementia in conversation. Traditionally, research on the linguistic abilities of persons with dementia is either observational (reports kept by caregivers) or experimental (e.g. based on comprehension tasks), and the focus is not on the syntactic competence of the speaker. We combine…

Purpose: When researchers investigate figurative language abilities (including idioms) in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), syntax abilities may be more important than once considered. In addition, there are limitations to the overreliance on false-belief tasks to measure theory of mind (TOM) abilities. In the current study, the…

Teachers should know language structure when dealing with the diagnosis of pupils' language difficulties. Simple solutions, such as proofreading his/her work, underlining, and transcribing paragraph dictation may be suggested for students once the teacher grasps the sound/symbol/syllable structure of English. (CL)

Discusses problems of terminology in modern-day French-English translation, and means by which translator skills can keep up with linguistic evolution. (Text is in French.) (AM)

Urges extended and broadened use of error analysis in school activities because observing how children perform during varied literacy activities can allow clues to their linguistic rules for using oral and written language and the sociolinguistic rules children are discovering in the classroom. (DF)

Examines the syntactic complexity and grammatical transformations used by students of English as a foreign language. Suggests that they use and expand syntactic structures in a manner similar to native speakers. (EL)

The Japanese Keigo system is the whole of the grammatical rules related to expressions of respectful or pejorative feelings concerning all persons involved in speech acts. This article proposes a new approach to the problem of teaching this system at the elementary level. (CLK)

This study of the speech of a five-year-old Japanese girl learning English focused on the use of prefabricated routines where items are memorized as wholes. The forms of the copula, "do you" questions and embedded "how to" questions were examined. (AG)

Literary artists manipulate language. If educators could develop in their students the same sense that language is manipulable, they could help them to better appreciate literature. Emily Dickinson's poem "I Like to See It Lap the Miles" could be approached by changing it on several levels--graphics, phonics, syntax, and semantics--and…

Examines grammatically the hesitation pauses in the spontaneous narrative speech of 48 6 1/2-7 years olds. (MB)

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 mother's interactions with her young daughter were studied with special emphasis placed upon the frequencies of linguistically instructional input and the strategies employed to provide this information. The girl was between 18 and 28 months old and her mean length of utterance (MIU) was between 1.5 and 4.3 morphemes. Only maternal input was…

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of varying the semantic content of active and passive sentences along a dimension of "personalness" on the comprehension of those sentences by preschool age children. The study focuses on a current linguistic controversy dealing with the relative adequacy of syntax-based and…

Three hypotheses concerning the degree to which understanding of various conjunctions is related to reading comprehension were tested. Four instruments, two standardized tests and two designed for the experiment, were administered to a stratified sample of Mansfield, Ohio, fourth-grade students. The first hypothesis--that there is a significant…