While the prenominal or postnominal position of descriptive adjectives in Spanish has been widely discussed, there is a partial aspect of this topic which is either ignored or dealt with in a perfunctory manner, namely, the possible existence of a semantic principle determining the sequence of descriptive adjectives in coordinate series of two or…

The "rhythmic group" in French (noun group or verb group) is described with examples. The aim is to find some relation between the morphophonological phenomena such as "liaison" occurring within such rhythmic groups and the syntactic structure of French. Available from Liber Laeromedel, Box 1205, S-22105 Lund, Sweden. (TL)

The inadequacy of the use of the linguist's introspective judgments of meaning and grammaticality as a basis for language studies in syntax and semantics is described, as is the need for improved methods. The evaluation of alternative methodologies by replication experiments is explored. (Author/RM)

Language samples were gathered for 12 normal children (two to five years old) representing a range of linguistic levels in a clinic setting with unstructured clinician-child interaction, and the home setting with unstructured mother-child interaction. (Author)

Presents arguments refuting the Chomskian case for nativism, and shows that a theory of language universals may be used in support of the empiricist view. (AM)

This article is a contrastive study of the devices Russian and German dispose of in order to designate a receptacle with content and without it. The German opposition "Wodkaflasche-Flasche Wodka" is represented in Russian by four constructions: relational adjective, genitive, and prepositional forms ("s" and "iz-pod"). (SW)

Discusses the principles of linguistic deviance in terms of five sets of rules and their corresponding linguistic or para-linguistic parameters. This theoretical framework relates assimilation, grammatical, lexical, referential, and reality rules to the parameters of acceptability, grammaticality, factuality, validity, and truth respectively. (EJS)

Syntactical and stylistic characteristics are used to assess the degree of specialization of scientific writing. Two groups of articles dealing with the same subject but differing in degree of specialization are compared; the technical articles have lower percentages of function words and higher numbers of noun adjuncts than the general articles.…

Children between the ages of 6 and 11 learn to understand and use the relative pronouns "qui" and "que." The closer the subordinate clause is to favorite word order, the easier it is for the child. (MLA)

Discusses a study which focused on how well elementary children supply appropriate intonation to written sentences and which found that many intonation patterns predictable by syntax had not been mastered even by children who were reading on fourth and fifth grade levels. (JM)

An editorialized report of data accumulated in a study of current American practice in the treatment of problems of usage in general purpose dictionaries. Their descriptive objectivity is characterized as "that of the blind men examining the elephant." Such practices reveal little change from that of Samuel Johnson's 1755 English…

Argues that the nonfuture use of "will" has exactly the same semantic structure as the future "will," and that the basic meaning of "will" is potential rather than future. (Author/HP)

An examination of the predicates "optional" and "obligatory" is made that suggests that they are far more appropriately viewed as derived rather than primitive notions, whose appropriate attributions follow in all cases from independent linguistic facts and principles of a much more general and more generally significant character. (Author/HP)