This paper considers the way in which a grammar must account for the speaker's knowledge of sentence force as opposed to sentence form or meaning and the way in which this force is related to a sentence. According to the performative analysis approach, the force of each sentence should be stated explicitly as a part of the underlying…

This paper examines the question of whether two labels should be used for the units traditionally called "sentence" and "clause" or whether the same label should be used and the units distinguished in some other way. Proponents of a two-level analysis have traditionally argued that sentences and clauses can have different…

The system described in this report is designed for use as a computational tool that allows a linguist to develop and study methods for generating surface strings from an underlying semantic structure. Initial findings with regard to form-determiners (such as voice, form, tense, and mood), some rules for embedding sentences, and some attention to…

The author feels that although the problem of pronominalization and of reference in general is at the very heart of syntactic investigation, transformational grammarians are unable to deal adequately with these problems. He finds their theory of referential indices (Chomsky, "Aspects of the Theory of Syntax") "completely beyond…

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…

Section I of this report discusses the theoretical issues relating to the development of syntax recognition routines based on psychological models of human speech recognition and reviews the relevant psychological literature. The research reported deals with attempts to relate various syntactic variables to measures of the perceptual complexity of…

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

A heuristic strategy model of sentence comprehension, similar to ones suggested by Bever, Fodor and Garret, is discussed, with the focus on the conceptual characteristics of such a model and on relevant research. Briefly, the model assumes that a speech perception device constructs a representation of a heard sentence corresponding roughly to a…

Despite the similarity in the surface structure, sentences containing a semi-auxiliary (e.g., "avoid,""bother,""happen,""seem,""begin,""tend," etc.) followed by a "to" infinitive or a gerund show a number of differences among themselves in respect to the co-occurrence…

This paper proposes a set of hypotheses on the nature of interrogration as a possible language universal. Examples and phrase structure rules and diagrams are given. Examining Tamazight and English, genetically unrelated languages with almost no contact, the author distinguishes two types of interrogation: (1) general, querying acceptability to…

A LINGUISTIC MODEL OF HUMAN LANGUAGE MUST ACCOUNT FOR BOTH "SENTENCES" AND "MEANINGS" AS WELL AS EXPLAIN HOW SPEAKERS ARE ABLE TO TRANSLATE SENTENCES INTO MEANINGS AND VICE VERSA. THE AUTHOR DOUBTS THAT THE RULES OF A TRANSFORMATIONAL GENERATIVE GRAMMAR WILL BE ABLE TO CONSTRUCT A TRANSDUCER CAPABLE OF TRANSLATING MEANINGS INTO…

In order to make linguistically significant generalizations in formulating transformational rules, a limited number of variables must be used. Such a limitation rule is the Complex Noun Phrase (NP) Constraint, active in English and, according to claims, universal. The fact that Korean synta, which is greatly different from English, also requires…