A group of 40 preschool children, ranging in age from three to five years, were required to illustrate the meaning of reversible passive sentences in which noun animacy was systematically varied. (Author/JMB)

A model is proposed that attempts to provide some order for the disparate findings with respect to the effects of signaling in text on recall. The type of signaling examined is that which explicitly cues the relationships among the major propositions in the text structure. It is noted that while it is generally assumed that such signaling is an…

This paper examines form and meaning of a class of simple sentences in which various constituents are brought into focus by the speaker. The Akan language is used, and the syntactic processes, or focus-marking, required to derive surface structures of the sentences are examined. (CK)

Proposes that NPs determined by the generic indefinite article represent abstract concepts and as such are not inherently different from indefinite NPs appearing in copulative predicates. (Author/RM)

Attempts to show how the surface structure of conversation can be described by means of a few principles and simple categories, regardless of its level of complexity. Accordingly, proposes a model that emphasizes the pragmatic functions of certain connectors and markers in the context of conversation exchanges. Societe Nouvelle Didier Erudition,…

An examination of various linguists' definitions of parataxis, asyndeton, and juxtaposition shows that the concepts are often varying and lack precision. The author offers new definitions which distinguish three specific cases. (Text is in French.) (AM)

Presents an heuristic procedure, based on cooccurrence of forms, for identifying the closed systems of a language and to show how the systems interlock, differ in meaning, and manifest themselves. (AM)

The implications of the contrastive particle "wa" and the emphatic particle "mo" occurring with quantifiers are examined. (Author)

Revised version of a paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Linguistic Society of America, Atlanta, Georgia, December 1972. (DD)

The Spanish feminine article /el/, ordinarily the singular masculine definite article, has been used as evidence of the need for obligatory disagreement rules. Others explain the anamoly by means of referral rules. A third solution is suggested: an allomorphy rule which can be interpreted syntactically or phonologically. (LMO)

A detailed view of the various uses in Russian of the conjunction "poka" is developed in this article. Frequent examples illustrate clausal relationships, negative constructions, aspect, and tense in typical "poka" constructions. The principal function of "poka" is related to the linguistic concept of simultaneity, and the standard dictionary…

The research reported is part of an investigation into the acquisition of grammar, using nonlinguistic information from situational and behavioral context to analyze the development of linguistic expression. Three children were seen for approximately 8 hours, every 6 weeks, in their homes, from the age of 19 months--soon after the earliest…