Home literacy environment explains between 12 and 18.5% of the variance of children's language skills. Although most authors agree that children whose parents encourage them to read tend to develop better and earlier reading skills, some authors consider that the impact of family environment in reading skills is overvalued. Probably, other…

This thesis investigates the nature of grammatical patterns through an in-depth study of resultative constructions in Mandarin and Thai. At the heart of the thesis lies the proposal that event structure templates--complex, meaning-based grammatical patterns--must be recognised as primary objects of linguistic analysis. As content-theoretic objects…

Flexibility and productivity are hallmarks of human language use. Competent speakers have the capacity to use the words they know to serve a variety of communicative functions, to refer to new and varied exemplars of the categories to which words refer, and in new and varied combinations with other words. When and how children achieve this…

The purpose of this experiment was to determine if subjects who were unaware that a phrase has been deleted from a sentence could match the deleted phrase in both semantic content and syntactic position. Subjects were required to complete one of two blanks in a sentence with a prepositional phrase. Instructions stressed that these completions…

Based on a paper read at the third Annual Conference of the International Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language in London, England, December 1969. (DS)

This is a grammatical and semantic analysis of verb usage in French. The occurrence of verb stems and endings with associated adverbs is described, defined and diagrammed. (MLA)

Recent findings in developmental psycholinguistics have shown that below the age of eight children have difficulty in understanding English sentences that do not conform to normal SVO pattern (Chomsky, 1969). Experiments with French-speaking children are reported which duplicate and extend this research. (Editor)

This test was designed to measure awareness of the relationship existing between sentences that are similar in specific semantic content but different in syntactic structure. The test consists of twenty-five items of the three-option multiple-response type, with the stem of each item being a "pattern" sentence to be matched with one of the three…

Object deletion in Classical Arabic is semantically marked on two levels: ( 1) dropping the object deliberately but functionally; and (2) emptying the object slot and focusing on the verbal action. The second level of object deletion stresses the verbal action. (20 references) (GLR)

A deep structure underlying sentences with modal adverbs and verbs in English is discussed. Semantic and syntactic similarities are pointed out in support of a suggestion that both surface structures have a common deep structure source. Possible ways of dealing with modality in a generative grammar are presented. (Available from: See FL 508 214.)…

Defines the difference between lexical and propositive nomination, and examines their interrelation. Clarification of syntactic problems allowed for by distinguishing nominative and communicative aspects of a sentence is discussed, and the relationship of semantic syntax to traditional syntactic theory is also discussed. (RM)

Criteria for defining individual members of the preposition word class are set forth. Arguments are presented against calling prepositions meaningless, yet it is conceded and explained that those which occur in wider contexts are vaguer due to their greater variability. The unitary, polysemous, and/or homonymous nature of prepositions are…

A review of analyses of conditionals (in the philosophical literature) and of topics (primarily in linguistics) reveals that their definitions are very similar. This paper justifies the method of basing semantic analysis of a construction on a cross-linguistic examination of its superficial form. (Author/NCR)

The problem of determining the grammatical correctness, as opposed to semantic correctness, of the output of a generative system is discussed. (RM)