Study of the linguistic means related to the occupation and non-occupation of Leerstellen'' (empty spaces) initiated by semantic and syntactic valence, as in the elliptical usage: Die Henne legt wieder. (Eier)'' (The hen is laying again. YeggsI). (RS)

The function of syntax as a factor in comprehension is described in terms of transformations of basic sentence patterns. Examples of transformations of the basic indirect object sentence are included to show emphasis, questions, negations, and coordinate or subordinate relationships. The term grammeme is defined as the minimum unit of syntactical…

IN A PREVIOUS PAPER (PRESENTED AT THE TWELFTH ANNUAL NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON LINGUISTICS) THE AUTHOR POINTED OUT (1) THE RATIO OF SENTENCES WITH SUBJECTS TO SUBJECTLESS SENTENCES IN ENGLISH IS TWO TO ONE, WHEREAS IN JAPANESE IT IS ONE TO FOUR. (2) IF THE ENGLISH MAJOR SENTENCE TYPE CAN BE SAID TO CONSIST OF SUBJECT AND PREDICATE, THE JAPANESE MAJOR…

Research supported by the Fonds National belge de la Recherche Scientifique. (DD)

The paper demonstrates the possibility of deriving, from the Correlational Grammar developed solely for the purpose of automatic sentence analysis, a classification of words that could be useful in language analysis and language teaching. A group of some 90 frequent English adjectives serves as example; they are sorted into ten classes according…

The value of a transformational model of syntax can be illustrated by comparing the taxonomic grammatical description of a complex sentence to a transformation-oriented description of the same sentence. The taxonomic approach, an immediate constituent analysis, requires 10 steps to break the sample sentence into its grammatical components; the…

A history of theories of transformational generative grammar is presented, and four theories are characterized as: Chomsky's initial theory, Chomsky's standard theory, the semantically-based theory, and finally Chomsky's nonstandard theory. The main issue appears to be the question of what determines sentence meaning. Specifically, it is stated…

A corpus of 10,000 sentences extracted from British theatrical texts was used to construct a frequency list of kernel sentence structures. Thirty-one charts illustrate the analyzed results. The procedures used and an interpretation of the frequencies are given. Such lists might aid foreign language teachers in course organization. Available from…

AS COMPUTERS ARE USED FOR INCREASINGLY COMPLEX OPERATIONS SUCH AS RETRIEVING DOCUMENTS AND ANALYZING SENTENCES, IT BECOMES APPARENT THAT HUMAN DECISION-MAKING IS STILL AN ESSENTIAL ELEMENT OF THE PROCESS. THE USE OF THE ON-LINE INTERACTIVE CAPABILITY OF TODAY'S THIRD-GENERATION COMPUTERS SUPPORTED BY TYPEWRITER AND DISPLAY SCOPE TERMINALS MAKES…

In order to study the complexity of sentence combining in college students, 32 students from five basic composition courses were asked to perform three writing tasks at three distinct times during the eight-week instructional period. Each student was asked to rewrite a passage of kernel sentences, to write a composition in the argumentative mode,…

Students' abilities in manipulation and control of syntax may be increased through a sequence of instruction involving the use of exercises termed "Non-Sentence Practice,""Nonsense-Sentences Practice," and "Syntactic Patterning Practice." The final step in the instruction sequence is to make the syntactic exercises pertinent to students' writing…