Most children master the syntactic structures described in this book with no instruction by the time they start school. However, learning a language is subject to critically sensitive age restraints, and learning a second language becomes increasingly difficult as children age through this zone of sensitivity. The goal of this updated and expanded…

The dislocation of sentence elements in spoken French is seen as allowing the speaker to free himself from certain constraints imposed on word order, position of accents, and grammar. Dislocation is described, its various functions are enumerated, and implications for second language instruction are outlined. (MSE)

Proposes a modification of the rule for the position of adjectives in French and indicates a method for applying the modified rule. The method can be used with any textbook. It is recognized to be useful but not infallible. (AMH)

The acquisition of textual competence in a language occurs through the acquisition of both lexical competence and knowledge of word order that allows the construction of well-formed sequences. Exercises that help develop vocabulary and word order skills in French as a foreign language are presented. (MSE)

Students in intermediate language courses, especially conversational courses, can benefit from a simple set of instructions for combining words and phrases into sentences. A description of the basic concepts determining word order in German--the fundamental sequence of clause elements, the "infrastructure," and the movement rules by which the…

Novice poetry readers need to realize that there are limits to poetic license, specifically with regard to the order of words in a sentence of poetry. For example, the integrity of independent clauses is not violated--no word placed in one independent clause is meant to be read as an element of another independent clause. Although parenthetical…