Historic linguistic consequences were studied in five separate areas of Atlantic Canada's Acadian population. Focus was on certain verbs in the third person present plural and the hypothesis that "allent" and faisent" are the result of hypercorrection. Results suggest complex reasons for their use and an indication of some social…

This study, an outgrowth of the "Linguistic Atlas of the United States and Canada," based on atlas field records covering the entire Eastern United States, enables the author to trace the geographical spread and also the social distribution of the linguistic features that are treated. Research demonstrates how early culture centers and…

Explores the semantic distinctions and tonal behaviors of four types of "lai" in Taiwanese. It is concluded that some types cannot be fully understood without reference to the underlying structure, the surface structure being often insufficient for determining the tonal shape of the syllable in utterance. (CLK)

This is a study of tense variation in "si"-clauses in Buenos Aires Spanish which basically consists of the substitution of the conditional for the imperfect subjunctive. The highest frequency of imperfect subjunctive shows up in +Contrary examples, while the conditional substitutes much more often in -Contrary examples. When the…

A discussion of the perception and use of tense in Moroccan Arabic proposes that the language expresses verb aspect much more readily than tense. Implications for teaching Moroccan Arabic as a second language are discussed, and an analysis of the system of tense and aspect in the language is presented. (MSE)

Using the case of a vernacular variety spoken on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, this article demonstrates how linguistic-systemic principles such as remorphologization, psycholinguistic principles of perceptual saliency, and sociolinguistic processes of symbolic identity converge to account for the development of leveling in this community.…

The study examines one component of the system of complementation in Palestinian Arabic. It is argued that the complementizer in question has an inherent semantics capable of influencing the meaning of sentences in which it is embedded. Specifically, its presence in a complex sentence communicates modal meanings distinct from those communicated by…

A study of middle verb constructions in Canadian French and Madrid Spanish suggests that two alleged defining characteristics of these constructions are not really defining characteristics. These are: (1) that the constructions only appear in generic sentences, and (2) that they disallow "by"-phrases of the type found in passive…

Discursive functions are seldom expressed in an absolutely neutral way. In most cases, various colorings - expressive, affective or social - are superimposed on the utterance by which a function is conveyed. In so far as these colorings are not random shades, but can be regarded as graded nuances within given ranges, selected in order to fit the…

Examines the process of consonant cluster reduction in the English of residents of a San Antonio, Texas, "barrio." The author compares Tejano patterns of "/-t,d/" deletion with the pan-English pattern. Results suggest a pattern of convergence and divergence. The study shows that Mexican American English exhibits regional and…

This paper presents a morphophonemic analysis of the characteristics that distinguish verb structure in New Mexican Spanish from that of Standard Spanish. Verb structure and classification are discussed, and verbs are analyzed as being composed of four components: stem, thematic vowel, tense-aspect, and person-number. Verbs are classified as…

In a sociolinguistic study of the verb phrase in Southern White English, a pattern of change in progress was observed. The 14 variables studied showed that certain variants were increasing, others decreasing, and yet others stable across time within the community, and that each variable's change was progressing in a wave sensitive to age, social…

This dictionary of Ahtna, a dialect of the Athabaskan language family, is the first to integrate all morphemes into a single alphabetically arranged section of main entries, with verbs arranged according to a theory of Ahtna (and Athabascan) verb theme categories. An introductory section details dictionary format conventions used, presents a brief…

A study examined the English syntactic problems persistent in the performance of educated Arabs living in the United States for an average of 5 years. The study is seen as significant because it reflects the features that distinguish the Arabs' English as a performance variety that develops where English is used as a foreign language. Subjects…

In this study, the use of the preposition "pour" (for) in Ontario French is analyzed: (1) in its use with the verb "payer" (to pay for), and (2) in its durative meaning. Data come from the written and spoken French of three groups of bilingual Franco-Ontarian students from the ninth and twelfth grade. In the written and spoken…