This study adopted Ambridge's research paradigm to examine the effects of entrenchment, preemption, and verb semantics in second language (L2) acquisition of English "un-" prefixation. Three groups of Chinese learners of English (second- and fourth-year English majors and teachers of English) rated the acceptability of 48 "un-"…

This paper uses a conversation analysis (CA) approach to explore parent-child interaction (PCI) within Nigerian families. We illustrate how speech and language therapists (SLTs), by using CA, can tailor recommendations according to the interactional style of each individual family that are consonant with the family's cultural beliefs. Three…

Suggests that word bridges--across which meaning is communicated--become more intricate both as the individual's language develops and as the world around him changes and grows. (TO)

Advocates a reworking of lexical pedagogy with reference to the instruction of techniques of expression. (Text is in French.) (AM)

The structure, complexity, and peculiarities of the English language are examined in this book, which begins with a discussion of the nature of language. Chapters are devoted to (1) naming--"Language as Answer to a Need"; (2) grammar--"Language as Economy"; (3) words--"Language as the Finding of Minds"; (4) etymology--"Language to Stretch Brains…

This paper seeks to formulate a principle that explains the working of the Japanese number system with respect to Japanese nouns and that defines the kinds of nouns and contexts that condition the forms of number expressions. It is the author's theory that in applying numbers to nouns, the Japanese make a formal distinction between things they…

Two experiments indicating that children's linguistic generalizational biases change from a semantically-based system to a syntactical-structural system provide evidence for a semantic-relational bias in children's early grammars and support the notion that children's generalizational biases shift from a semantic-relational basis to a…

This textbook, book 6 of "The Language of Man" series, covers semantics, the language of politics, language and race, the language of advertising, and the origins and growth of the English language. The material analyzed comes from many sources (advertisements, newspaper articles, poems, parodies) and attempts to demonstrate the effect of the…

A new language-processing system, CONSTRUCT, is described and defined as a question-answering system for elementary mathematical language using natural language input. The primary goal is said to be an attempt to reach a better understanding of the relationship between syntactic and semantic components of natural language. The "meaning…

This issue includes four papers: (1) "Context in Children's Speech," by Jenny Cook-Gumperz and John J. Gumperz, demonstrates how context is used as a framing device for semantic interpretation of messages. It is suggested that context is not simply background information but part of the total message, entering into the information communicated,…

This article explains the linguistic situation in Greece and the condition of diglossia that has arisen there through the use of common Modern Greek, developing from the Athenian dialect into a medium of communication used by all Greeks, and the use of Katharevusa, the "pure" or "purifying" language which is supposedly an imitation of Ancient…

Formal definitions are one example of "decontextualized" language use, in which reliance on background knowledge shared with the interlocutor is minimized, and use of conversational devices is avoided. Definitions of English nouns by 137 second- to fifth-grade children, about half of whom were non-native English speakers, were analyzed…