Kindergarteners without number conservation ability were found to rely on the nonlinguistic strategy of choosing the greater amount in tasks requiring the choice of more and less. Mature semantic knowledge of "more" was found to precede that of "less." (Author)

Describes a learning game developed to simulate verbal communication. Focuses on words and meanings and has applications to semantics, interpersonal communication, listening, nonverbal communication, and creativity in general. (PD)

Two experiments indicated that sentence verification times were significantly longer when a discrepancy between target sentence and context was in the syntactic presupposition, rather than in the assertion. Findings are best explained by a structural hypothesis, not by strategies designed to locate given and new information. (Author/CP)

Matched pairs of skilled and less skilled readers read aloud material in cloze procedure format and printed in geometric transformations. Skilled readers made greater use of grammatical and contextual information. The stability of differences suggests that differential utilization of syntactic and semantic cues contributes to differences in…

Expounds Firth's views on the problems of translation and surveys theories of translation by some Firthian linguists. Defines the concept of meaning and the concept of varieties within a language, discussing various dialect categories and other categories that relate to constant features of speakers' and writers' use. (MES)

Describes two experiments on the processing of ambiguous words: one involving lexical decisions for words related to dominant or subordinate meanings of homograph primes, the other involving ambiguous words ending sentences that bias the homographs at varying degrees. Concludes that dominance and context contribute independently to processing of…

Graduate students rated their self-perception of three personal traits and evaluated the concepts of drug addict and alcoholics. The results were correlated to the semantics of drug addicts and alcoholics, and show a positive relationship between self-perception and the semantics of drug addicts and alcoholic concepts. (Author)

Three experiments examined what happens to reaction time to verify easy items when they are mixed with difficult items in a verification task. Subjects verification of simple arithmetic equations and sentences took longer when placed in a difficult list. Difficult sentences also slowed the verification of easy arithmetic equations. (Author/RD)

This study compared the abilities of 30 sixth-grade, competent readers and 30 adult, competent readers to process syntactic structures under conditions of related and unrelated discourse. Results suggest the ability to process syntactic and semantic elements is not fully developed in children in the 11- to 12-year range. (Author/SJL)

Discusses three experiments investigating the development of word-by-word comprehension in 5-, 7-, and 10-year olds. Subjects monitored for target words in a sentence. Variable included types of monitoring tasks and distribution and context of target words. Results are discussed in terms of the types of comprehension processes various tasks…

Describes Elwood Murray's Interdisciplinary Analogue Laboratory which was designed to identify analogous structures occurring in different fields of education. These basic structures could then serve as foundations of an integrated curriculum where students would be encouraged to view their subjects of study relationally. (JMF)

Describes a strategy for guessing meanings from context and suggests ways of practicing this strategy. The strategy involves four steps: (1) determining the part of speech of the word, (2) looking at the immediate grammar, (3) studying the wider context (usually the conjunction relationships), and (4) guessing the word and checking the guess.…

To determine whether the auditory difficulties of learning disabled (LD) children are characterized by deficiencies in processing especially rapid or especially slow speech, the effect of various rates of compressed and expanded sentences on the repetition performance of 20 LD and normal children (ages 8 to 11 years) was investigated. (Author/DLS)

Describes an approach to the teaching of English vocabulary which draws on several aspects of theoretical semantics; There are four sections: (1) an outline of the learner's goals and problems in acquiring vocabulary, (2) a brief description of the semantic theory involved, (3) examples of teaching material and exercises, and (4) reactions to the…

Studies the perceptual relationship between temporal "before" and "after" and their spatial counterparts. Adults reported temporal "before" related to spatial "after" and temporal "after" related to spatial "before." Three-year old children better understood spatial "after" and spatial "before," suggesting a temporal/spatial semantic acquisition…