Argues that words with different meanings normally appear in discriminably different contexts, and that the cue for learning to associate direct antonyms is not their substitutability but rather their frequent co-occurrence in the same sentence. (Author/VWL)

The nominal imperative, which serves to give an order in nominal rather than verbal form (e.g., "Silence!") presents a little-studied case of alternation between presence and absence of determiner in a nominal syntagm. Analysis of a French language corpus allows development of hypotheses on the meaning of certain types of determiners, or…

If it is immediate, definite anaphoric reference of an indefinite syntagm "'un'+noun" in French (e.g., "un chien...l'animal") seems appropriate for an "unfaithful anaphor" (e.g., "un chien...l'animal") but not a "faithful" anaphor (e.g., "un chien...le chien"). This rule helps to identify…

Analysis of the indicative-subjunctive alternation in the compliment of interrogative utterances with the verb "creer" shows that the "modality of reserved epistemic" determines choice of subjunctive. This determination contributes to a hypothesis about the nature of the subjunctive in Spanish. (CP)

A discussion of verb intransitivization in English grammar looks at different verb classes that allow or do not allow this phenomenon. The semantic primitive of involvement is a phenomenon that attempts to find related features in sentences where intransitivization occurs. Semantic involvement patterns are assigned in the subject or direct object…

An important part of the task of an oral interpreter performing a piece of literature in translation is to deal with some of the difficulties inherent in the analysis and performance of such literature. The interpreter must examine the basic accuracy of the text; decide which of several translations to use in performance, choosing the one that…

An editorialized report of data accumulated in a study of current American practice in the treatment of problems of usage in general purpose dictionaries. Their descriptive objectivity is characterized as "that of the blind men examining the elephant." Such practices reveal little change from that of Samuel Johnson's 1755 English…

Action word and object word productions of 12 language-normal and language-impaired young children were examined. Results revealed that percentage of consonants produced correctly within the spontaneous speech of both groups was higher for object words. The production advantage for object words was maintained even when certain input factors were…

Presidential address delivered at the Annual General Meeting of the Modern Language Association of Great Britain held January 2, 1973, the University of Surrey, Guildford, England. (DS)

Transparent" refers to words formed from other words in such a way that meanings and relationships to the original object or concept are clearly suggested; the author analyzes and classifies the processes according to which these types of words are formed. (RS)

Gives some examples of internal contradictions in the use of the Spanish subjunctive. Details these contradictions to show there is only a tenuous relationship between surface forms and semantic features and categories. (EKN)

Children exhibiting a referential orientation seem more likely to acquire new object names than nonreferentially oriented children. Also, children's selection of words may be influenced by the phonological structure of the words. (Author/RH)

Introduces the theory that the conversational historical present (CHP) in itself has no significance. It is the switching between CHP and the past tenses that is the relevant feature. (Author/CFM)

Examines the theory of "natural semantic metalanguage," which argues that all languages share an irreducible core of universal semantic primitives with certain universal syntactic properties. Hypotheses on the universal syntax of semantic primitives are outlined. Topics include valency options and complementation possibilities of…

Reports on a study of the native lexicon of two genetically unrelated languages: Kambera and Dutch. Focuses on the expressive elements. (Author/VWL)