A source of regularity in sentence construction is the recurrent use of certain fixed syntactic formats in explaining, describing, etc. Subjects exploit these regularities in sentence perception. An experiment on the perception of "perverse" sentences shows that listeners assimilate some of the features of sentences to "formulation frames."…

The results of study examining several indices of language use of normal and retarded children show the greatest difference between groups in sentence complexity and diversity. (TO)

A group of three-year-old children was compared to one of four-year-old children in the usage of 26 syntactic transformations on the basis of 60 utterances per child. The older group used significantly more sentence transformations per child and significantly fewer simple active declarative sentences than the younger. Among the older group 10 out…

When 20 highly talkative and 20 much less talkative preschool children were measured for articulation, grammar, receptive syntax, and sentence repetition, the performances of the highly talkative children were significantly superior on all measures. (Author/RL)

Describes a study that analyzes narratives of sixth- and ninth-grade students for differences between male and female in T-unit length, clause length, and number of clauses per T-unit. No significant differences were found in the words per T-unit, the words per clause, or the use of verb extensions. (SED)

Reports on two studies exploring the contrast effects in judgments of messages exhibiting high or low lexical and syntactic diversity. Suggests that listeners are sensitive to variations in lexical diversity but not syntactic diversity. (RL)