The components of a dependency grammar are described, and some procedures for automatic sentence analysis are given. (HP)

The results of a survey in which 50 British university students were asked to assess the acceptability of 40 indirect object sentences are analyzed, and some problems inherent in English indirect object constructions are discussed. (DS)

The opinions of various grammarians and linguists about the correct usage of "adonde" and "a donde" are presented. (Text is in Spanish.) (CHK)

A study of the use of sentence fragments in 50 books and magazines suggests that the term "fragment" should be redefined to include "broken sentences" (always an error) and "minor sentences" (acceptable in any student writing). (DD)

A review of the Writer Rabbit software program details its multiple classroom uses, focusing on language arts activities such as practicing identification and classification of sentence parts, practicing spelling, and inventing stories. (CB)

Describes a specific class of indirectly conveyed meanings which are definitional, or partly definitional, that is, although conveyed by the utterances of sentences, they are not part of the meaning of those sentences. The study considers Strawson's topic-centered approach to presupposition, thematic predicates, and the pragmatics of…

Samples of free writing by third and fifth graders were compared to determine if the clausal options used differed in terms of grammatical function, position in sentence, and introductory connective. The writings were so similar that no significant differences were found. Conclusions and implications are explained. (MT)

Describes a study in which 20 reading-disabled children, ages 7-10, were compared with 20 nondisabled readers in the same age range as to their ability to interpret complex sentences. Results showed that the nondisabled readers performed at higher levels of grammatical development than did the reading-impaired children. (SED)

Techniques are outlined for translating the French imperfect subjunctive into English without syntactic awkwardness, based on the approach that the verb form is a logical system regulated by well-defined syntactic rules. (MSE)

When college students were required to remember a sequence of numbers before reading a sentence displayed at a constant rate and the syntactic structure was known beforehand, their recall of the number sequence was superior. When subjects were timed while reading individual sentences and syntactic structure was known beforehand, reading times…

Some psycholinguistic interpretations of the Japanese language are made, with reference to the relationships between sentence structure and cognition. Features of the language indicating a strong interdependency between linguistic expression and behavioral practice are examined. (Author/RM)

Once students can identify main (independent) clauses and main ideas, a simple graphic system will demonstrate whether their sentences are strong and unified. The student underlines the main clause of a sentence and circles the main idea. In a strong, unified sentence, the circle will sit on the line. If the circle does not sit on the line, the…

To examine the agreement of linguists and non-linguists concerning the acceptability of surface structure, 48 under-graduates classified each of 66 sentences as acceptable or unacceptable while playing different roles. High agreement was confirmed. (Author/KM)