Two experiments measured the frequency of perceptual errors as a function of differential presupposition in descriptive sentences. More errors occurred when misrepresentation involved presupposition than when it involved the focused proposition. Several surface structures of English, in combination, increased the presuppositional strength of the…

Based on the assumption that awareness of certain aspects of underlying structure is basic to comprehending the meaning of a sentence, the module described in this report (English Sentence Structure: Programmed Exercises) is designed to increase the learner's awareness of English syntactic structure. The materials follow a programmed format with…

This essay discusses a theory of grammar which incorporated Chomsky's distinction between deep and surface structure and accepts Fillmore's proposal to exclude such subject and concepts as direct object from the base structure. While recognizing the need for specifying an underlying set of caselike relations, it is proposed that this need can best…

This review of Bever's psycholinguistics survey is for the most part favorable. Commentary is centered on sections 1, 2, 4, and 6 of the report. The survey's first part is judged significant in that Wundt's pioneering work in psycholinguistics is discussed. The second section, on grammar as a psychological process, is found obscure in its…

In perceiving speech, a hearer may divide the utterance into predictable units. In the present investigation of these units, an alleged phenomenon (the resistance of the hearer to perceive extraneous auditory stimuli) was employed. It was argued that this resistance caused the hearer to perceive the irrelevant stimulus, if at all, primarily at the…