The so-called compound use of ki 'im has been interpreted mainly either with exceptive ("except" or "unless") or adversative meaning ("but" or "rather"), although it has sometimes also been interpreted in other ways such as "only" or "surely". These various meanings have been applied…

Discusses the translator's need for help from structural linguistics and the inadequacy of the response of linguistics to so-called translation problems. Two German-French syntax problems are given as examples and a solution is offered from a translator's point of view. (AMH)

Three experiments investigated whether speakers use constituent ordering as a mechanism for avoiding ambiguities. In utterances like ''Jane showed the letter to Mary to her mother,'' alternate orders would avoid the temporary PP-attachment ambiguity (''Jane showed her mother the letter to Mary,'' or ''Jane showed to her mother the letter to…

To express object transfer, Cantonese-speakers use a "ditransitive" ([V-R-T] or [V-T-R] where V = Verb, T = Theme, R = Recipient), or a more complex prepositional/serial-verb (P/SV) construction. Clausal elements in Cantonese datives can be optional (resulting in "full" versus "non-full" forms) or appear in variant…

Reports an experiment intended to assess the psychological reality of the underlying clauses in "resultative constructions" in English. (RM)

Reports research at the University of Saskatchewan in which experiments with variously rearranged English and French sentences showed grammatical acceptability decreasing as the disruption of the sentence producing field of subject, verb, object, qualifier increased. (RM)

Discusses failings of the more common rules on German word order placement, then considers in detail a recent study on the subject by Ulrich Engel. (Text is in German.) (DH)

Supports the theory that phonic units cannot be delimited without reference to conceptual units, and that there must be a mutual dependence of sound and meaning in language. (DS)

This paper examines the various syntactic and semantic functions of the "ada" verb of "being" in Malay. The claim is made that there is an abstract uppermost "ada" in the underlying structure of Malay sentences that asserts or denies the truth of the surface main clause. A further claim is made that the…