One of the intricate properties of second language acquisition is that some types of grammatical feature appear to be acquired easily and in a native-like way, while others remain persistently difficult. There is much evidence related to the issue in the current empirical studies, and the issue raises an important explanatory problem for a theory…

Written in Spanish, the article discusses the transformational grammar of the Spanish used by Chicanos. (NQ)

Evidence is offered to support the view that linguistic competence cannot in principle be divorced from linguistic performance in order to abstract universal properties of grammars, that rules of grammar inevitably incorporate perceptual strategies and constraints, and that grammaticality and acceptability are related to predictability. A theory…

The conditions whereby a concept might be learned on the basis of a language mediation process prior to the inductive learning of subordinate concepts are sketched. The view is expressed that grammar treatments which are apt to primary education should be defined on the basis of a pedagogy's needs for linguistic characterizations of concepts to be…

The author outlines the construction of a somewhat different machine than that envisioned by Turing (with which it would be possible to converse, presumably by telephone or telegraph, and which would be capable of masquerading as a human being). The machine envisaged by the author would be capable of doing comprehension exercises. Such a machine…

Computer-based multidimensional scaling techniques are used to determine the dimensionality of grammatical variation in three large sets of data: Ross' (1973) Noun Phrase and fake Noun Phrase data; Sankoff's (1974) complementizer "que"-deletion (Montreal French) data; and Cedergren's (1973) syllable-final S-reduction (Panamanian Spanish) data. (DB)

The discussion throughout this paper is devoted to answering the question: What is the nature of our knowledge of language and what theoretical assumptions does the answer entail for linguistic description? Discussed are--(1) what it means to know a language, (2) the distinction between linguistic competence and performance, (3) justification of…

This article outlines a model of the two basic components of a text, namely, the system of formal linguistic rules, and the realization of these rules into concrete discourse, by means of particular transformations. (Text is in French.) (CLK)

If the question of what it is that is innate is simply left as some kind of human learning potential, this position, representative of the nativist philosophy, does not differ radically from that of behaviorists. The latter position holds that a human being starts out with a mind which is basically empty and receptive to, subject to, and the…

Speech performance data, including hesitations in the stream of speech, fragmented words or phrases, retracings, and the use of intonation contours for noncommunicative purposes, are examined. It is proposed that these types of speech phenomena are indicative of underlying hypothesis testing and utterance planning strategies. Data produced by 48…

After an extensive transformational consideration of the shift of indirect objects with "to" and "for," the authors introduce a theory of perceptual strategy which could be used to supplement transformational theory. According to a concept of perceptual strategy constraints on susceptibility, the strategy for interpreting a sentence involves…

This annotated bibliography lists approximately 100 books, reports, Rand memoranda, and papers, written between 1961 and 1971, in the fields of linguistic theory, language research, computational linguistics, and formal linguistics. Many documents involve the use of computers in problems of language analysis; many concern the analysis of Russian.…