Spontaneous motion is one of the most basic event types, but different languages use varying patterns to express it. For example, English usually encodes path information in prepositional phrases or adverbial particles, while Korean maps path information onto verbs (Talmy, 1985). This study predicts that this typological difference would affect…

Discusses the stratification and specialization of common language into sublanguages for various spheres of activity and the introduction of the sublanguages into different language boundaries. (CK)

This survey of languages of the world begins with a chart of about 500 languages, organized in 21 language families. Within each family are listed subgroups and the major and minor languages within those subgroups. The chart is followed by a brief description of each language family. This in turn is followed by individual descriptions of the more…

Formality as a style may be defined as language which reflects or "keynotes" the degree of familiarity between participants in a discourse. Working from this assumption, this paper attempts to answer the question, "How is formality best described?" Results of a series of tests indicate that informants' labels (with the…

A dialect survey of the transition between two major Indo-Aryan languages in Nepal, Bhojpuri and Maithili, was conducted focusing on both the linguistic and sociolinguistic aspects of the various languages and dialects. The purpose of the study was to find out where and how this transition occurred between the pure Bhojpuri-speaking area and the…

A directory of the 82 African languages given high priority for instruction in the United States contains a profile for each language that includes its classification and where it is spoken, the number of speakers, dialect situation, usage, orthography status, and listings of related human and institutional resources for the purpose of…