Spanish voiced stops /b,d,g/ exhibit [+continuant] allophonic variants in phonetic environments that vary across modern speech varieties. It is argued here that variation in voiced stops and spirants continues to be associated very directly with physical factors in speech production as circumscribed by five phonetic correlates of spoken language…

Presents an example of a grammaticalization type not conforming to normal expectations of unidirectionality. The Biblical Hebrew third person singular pronouns are grammaticalizations from the verb root "to be." In Modern Hebrew, the zero copula in equative clauses has been replaced by these pronouns, producing the progression: copula to pronoun…

Analysis of English articles use patterns found the definite article (DA) used far less than in other European languages. Generic DA use is rare in English, generally only used where the head noun has already been referred to or is contextually unique. Otherwise, the indefinite article, a possessive, or plural of the noun without an article must…

Rejects the "etymological fallacy" theory, which seeks to minimize the role of etymology in the study of semantics, arguing that etymology represents a perfectly coherent philosophy of language, given that linguistic change is a legitimate source of anxiety for any culture founded on laws or sacred texts, whether oral or written. (MSE)

Examines claims and assumptions of theory of "government phonology," using as a starting point a monograph on phonological government in Japanese, in which the theory is applied to a range of phonological and morphological data. Main theoretical concepts in the theory are introduced and critically discussed, and connections to other theories of…

Sought to determine whether two low-rising intonation contours should be accepted as distinct patterns in American English, alongside three other widely accepted contours. Dialogues varying only in their intonation contour were presented in a random order to 47 speakers of Midwestern American English. Subjects interpreted the meaning of the…

In this study, six percent of a 2-year-old child's spontaneous utterances in six 3-hour samples were identified as one of three expressive metalinguistic utterance types: interrogatives, hypothesis tests, and evocative utterances. Evocative utterances were used most frequently. The subject used the strategies to seek nouns 78 percent of the time.…

Presents two studies that explore facial expression production in deaf signers. An experimental paradigm uses chimeric stimuli of American Sign Language linguistic and facial expressions to explore patterns of productive asymmetries in brain-intact signers. (Author/VWL)

Examined accentuation patterns that appear in Japanese adaptation of French words. Argues that these patterns reflect the default accentuation of Japanese grammar; they correspond to accent patterns found in some marginal sectors of Japanese vocabulary where the accent is predictable. (Author/VWL)

Presents data on patterns of language use by Italians living in Australia, focusing on the maintenance of Italian and Dialect under the impact of widespread shift to English. Data from self-report surveys suggest differences by gender, age, and region of origin and note that the position of Italian, though more limited, is somewhat more solid than…

Investigated toddlers' acquisition and use of nonsense verbs in passive and active voice. Children used various strategies to answer questions designed to elicit voice changes but did not usually change verb construction. When passive and active constructions were primed, older children were able to use an active-introduced verb in passive…

The study sought to examine the effect of lexical aspect and narrative discourse structure on the pattern of acquisition and use of English verbal morphology exhibited by creole-speaking students. Findings indicated that the emergent pattern of morphology in the creole participants' written interlanguage appeared to be influenced not only by…

This document shares Dr. Walt Wolfram's views on African-American Dialect. He states that the most elementary principle is that all language is patterned and rule-governed, and one can apply that principle to African-American English, Appalachian English, and to every other dialect that is examined.

We report an investigation of 9-year-olds' ability to interpret idioms in relation to their reading comprehension level. We manipulated whether the idioms were transparent or opaque, whether they were real or novel, whether they were presented in isolation or in a supportive narrative context. As predicted, children were better able to explain the…

Overlaps in form and meaning between morphologically related words have led to ambiguities in interpreting priming effects in studies of lexical organization. In Semitic languages like Arabic, however, linguistic analysis proposes that one of the three component morphemes of a surface word is the CV-Skeleton, an abstract prosodic unit coding the…