Riemer (2009) complains that a large number of sentences, despite appearing to be acceptable to many native speakers of English--including himself--are treated as ungrammatical in recent works that subscribe to the generative approach to (the English) language. In his opinion, this need not be considered "as evidence of an overly narrow…

In vocabulary testing, whether to adopt context is a heat-debated topic. In the article, an experiment is designed to investigate what is the effect of zero context and sentence context on the vocabulary testing? And how do the different kinds of context in vocabulary affect the subjects' performance? The experimental result demonstrates that…

This paper considers the way in which a grammar must account for the speaker's knowledge of sentence force as opposed to sentence form or meaning and the way in which this force is related to a sentence. According to the performative analysis approach, the force of each sentence should be stated explicitly as a part of the underlying…

In two studies, systematic semantic manipulations were made on a noun for unmodified transitive sentences which underwent active to passive transformations in a communicatively sterile context, and variations of animatedness on the noun constituted significant semantic properties in perceiving sentences that underwent transformation. (Author/KM)

Revised and expanded version of a paper presented at the Colloquium of the reasearch Institue for the German Language, Marburg, West Germany, June 16, 1972. (DD)

This paper attempts to give a unified view of the workings of noun clauses. These are considered according to three main types corresponding to three different kinds of source sentences. All three types can be used in any usual noun-phrase function, especially subject, direct object, and prepositional object. Four factors which complicate the…

A CHARACTERISTIC PROPERTY OF CERTAIN TYPES OF SENTENCE EMBEDDING IN ENGLISH IS THE DELETION OF THE INITIAL NOUN PHRASE OF THE EMBEDDED SENTENCE WHEN THE NOUN PHRASE IS IDENTICAL TO SOME NOUN PHRASE IN THE MAIN SENTENCE. EXAMPLES OF THIS PHENOMENON ARE SENTENCES LIKE "JOHN CONDESCENDED TO GO" AND "JOHN DEFIED BILL TO GO."…

The present volume is directed toward the reader wanting to begin a study of linguistics but who is "overwhelmed by the amount of material available, much of it too technical for him to understand." The author has attempted to provide both theory and applications and has limited the scope to English transformational grammar. Exercises at the end…

Paper presented at Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, on March 11, 1971. (VM)

The psycholinguistic experiments reported here lead the author to the conclusion that there is a definite interdependence between semantic values and syntactic functions in the construction of sentences and that a satisfactory interpretation of syntactic encoding demands a consideration of the personality structure of the individual speaker.…

This paper examines the question of whether two labels should be used for the units traditionally called "sentence" and "clause" or whether the same label should be used and the units distinguished in some other way. Proponents of a two-level analysis have traditionally argued that sentences and clauses can have different…

The serious student of language, English or foreign, and especially the future language teacher must receive a solid training not only in theoretical but also in applied syntax. Such a course should be offered at the advanced level and deal with the syntax of the language involved in a rigorously systematic way. The search for a systematic, yet…

The subject of a semantic sentence-forming process is discussed. It is suggested that the concept of agency should not be treated on a par with the concept of the objective. The hypothesis is confined to simple intransitive and transitive sentences. (Available from: See FL 508 214). (Author/RM)

The author feels that although the problem of pronominalization and of reference in general is at the very heart of syntactic investigation, transformational grammarians are unable to deal adequately with these problems. He finds their theory of referential indices (Chomsky, "Aspects of the Theory of Syntax") "completely beyond…