Briefly characterizes the view of context most widely used in applied linguistics and language teaching. Research about some of the parameters that contribute to greater or lesser conceptual difficulty is outlined. Research about the role of intentionality and causality in narrative is also described. (Author/CB)

Re-examines the case of the "pseudo-passive," an interlanguage structure considered typical of first-language Chinese learners of second language English. Earlier approaches to the analysis of the structure--typological and syntactic--are reviewed and an alternative approach--discourse-syntactic--is proposed to bridge a methodological…