Papers from the conference on semantics and linguistic theory include the following: "Definiteness, Existentials, and the 'List' Interpretation" (Barbara Abbott); "Strong and Weak Novelty and Familiarity" (Cleo Condoravdi); "The Singular-Plural Distinction in Hindi Generics" (Veneeta Srivastav Dayal);" Adverbial…

The study examines one component of the system of complementation in Palestinian Arabic. It is argued that the complementizer in question has an inherent semantics capable of influencing the meaning of sentences in which it is embedded. Specifically, its presence in a complex sentence communicates modal meanings distinct from those communicated by…

The linguistic situation of Yoruba is described briefly and the origins of Arabic influence on the language are examined. It is noted that Arabic influences Yoruba mainly through Hausa, and four basic conditions results from adaptation of Arabic phonemes in Yoruba: (1) the consonant, which does not exist in Yoruba, is dropped without replacement;…

Argues that while much research on spoken Arabic uses Classical Arabic as the standard for measuring variation, the assumption leads to fundamental and persistent misunderstanding of the true situation. More careful examination of empirical data reveals that variation and change in spoken Arabic involves interplay between local varieties and…

Investigation of how 19 adult males listened to and recognized unknown foreign languages (Farsi, Punjabi, Spanish, Indonesian, Arabic, Urdu) indicated that the untrained listeners made complex judgments in describing, transcribing, and identifying phonetic, segmental, suprasegmental, and other impressionistic language details. (Author/CB)

Six working papers on phonology, primarily concerning less commonly taught languages, are presented are in this volume. Titles include: "Non-Uniqueness Condition and the Segmentation of the Chinese Syllable" (Benjamin Ao); "Theoretical Consequences of Metathesis in Maltese" (Elizabeth Hume); "Cs and Vs or Moras: The Case…

An analysis of the English word stress placement of six native Arabic speakers and six native English speakers studying Arabic revealed that, while most of the native English subjects produced the expected word stress, the Arab subjects placed stress on English words in conformity with Arabic stress patterns. (CB)

This study investigated whether "avoidance" is an appropriate term to describe the linguistic behavior in which the learner with a particular first-language (L1) background tries to underproduce or underrepresent a particular second-language (L2) structure. The first section seeks to establish the general psycholinguistic principle that…

This study investigated similarities and differences in Egyptian Arabic and American English refusals, using a modified discourse completion test (DCT) consisting of three requests, three invitations, three offers, and three suggestions. Each situation included one refusal to a person of higher status, one to a person of equal status, and one to a…

Native speakers of Egyptian Arabic make errors in their pronunciation of English that cannot always be accounted for by a contrastive analysis of Egyptian analysis of Egyptain Arabic and English. This study focuses on three types of errors in the pronunciation of voiced and voiceless "th" made by fluent speakers of English. These errors were noted…

The collection of essays on phonetics and phonology, entirely in French, includes: "Le calcul de la frequence intrinseque. Necessite du rapport a une ligne de reference" (calculation of intrinsic frequency; necessity of a line of reference) (Conrad Ouellon); "Caracteristiques microprosodiques de duree et d'intensite en lecture et en…

This paper seeks to define the relationship between speech and writing as two separate media within language, and suggests the use of the term translation to describe moving from one medium to another. Such a view acknowledges the independence of speech and writing, the possibility of translation in either direction, the possible untranslatability…

Papers from a 1990 Dutch colloquium on immigrant language varieties in Europe are presented in four categories: (1) use of immigrant language varieties in Europe; (2) first language acquisition in a second language context; (3) code-switching; and (4) language maintenance and loss. Papers include: "Sweden Finnish" (Jarmo Lainio);…

A study compared the topical structure (TS) of Arabic and English in order to determine whether Arab learners of English as a Second Language (ESL) transfer potential differences between Arabic and English in their English writing, or whether they use an altogether different TS indicative of developmental factors. Four sets of data were compared…

Papers from the conference on the occurrence of verbal constituents in series in certain languages, particularly pidgins and creoles, include the following: "What Are We Talking About When We Talk About Serial Verbs?" (Arnold M. Zwicky); "Serial Verb Constructions" (Pieter Seuren); "On the Definition and Distribution of…