Three experiments investigating the use of temporal information in a reduced relative clause to interpret verb tense of the main clause found that subjects rapidly assessed temporal information to resolve tense ambiguity, demonstrating an incremental approach to comprehension that uses previous discourse to continuously update comprehension and…

In an effort to untangle theories of French verb tense for second language classroom use, an instructional approach that moves the learner progressively through the tenses and their meanings is presented. The system focuses on the relationship of each tense to the present tense. (MSE)

Margaret Speas'"Phrase Structure in Natural Language" is reviewed. It presents three recent innovations in phrase structure research that offer new tools to explain data and solve old problems: the VP-internal subject hypothesis, the layered VP hypothesis, and the articulated IP hypothesis. (Contains 19 references.) (LB)

Three experiments presented nonsense verbs to two-year-olds either in syntactic isolation or embedded within a transitive syntactic frame. Found that children had identifiable action biases in the absence of syntactic information and that these biases were shifted by the addition of a transitive syntactic frame. (MDM)

Observation of sentences shows that expected incompatibility of the present perfect in English and adverbs of finished time may be ignored by speakers who focus on the current relevance of the event to the moment of speaking. Communicational problems and conflicts may be resolved pragmatically with reference to the principal purpose of…

Analysis of the indicative-subjunctive alternation in the compliment of interrogative utterances with the verb "creer" shows that the "modality of reserved epistemic" determines choice of subjunctive. This determination contributes to a hypothesis about the nature of the subjunctive in Spanish. (CP)

Proposes teaching three ways to suppress the agent in French: indefinite subject pronoun, pronominal verbs, and passive voice. Recommends that, instead of showing beginning students how to avoid the passive, they should learn how to stress activity at the expense of the agent. Contemporary or recent beginning and intermediate textbooks are…

Shows that the German "perfekt" has a uniform temporal meaning that results systematically from the interaction of its three components--finiteness marking, auxiliary, and past participle--and that the two readings are the consequence of a structural ambiguity. This analysis also predicts the properties of other participle constructions, in…

Uses psuedo-verbs to investigate the relationship between children's awareness of grammatical distinctions and their success in learning about the spelling sequence for morphemes that do not conform to letter-sound correspondence rules. Concludes that the use of "ed" endings for regular verbs reflects a morphological spelling strategy…

Shows that there are at least two types of gapping in natural languages: canonical gapping and LPD. Argues that Chinese has some gapping sentences that result from ATB movement from V to "v." Data from Chinese affirm Johnson's (1994) theory of gapping that gapping occurs in those languages only with verb movement. (Author/VWL)

Accounts for the observation that in a broad range of genetically unrelated languages two classes of direct objects are found that are based on their semantic and syntactic properties. Specifically, splits are found in case marking, object position, and the ability of the object to trigger verb agreement. Proposes that this split in object…

Examines the relationship between the polysemic structure of main verbs and their light counterparts. Suggests that light verbs are systematically related to their heavy counterparts in retaining the force-dynamic properties of the heavy sense, but that the conceptual domain in which that force-dynamic structure applies shifts from the physical to…

Analyzed three main types of English dative constructions--the double-object dative, the "to" dative, and the "for" dative--in the spontaneous speech of seven children aged 1.6-5 years. Results provide a starting point for determining the underlying representations for the different kinds of dative constructions and for explicating how children…

Discusses the characterization of the meaning of the Russian perfective-imperfective opposition and concludes that these characterizations fail. The article maintains that aspects are temporal relations between the time at which some situation obtains and the time for which an assertion is made by the utterance that describes the situation. (33…

Presents evidence based on experimental data from Western European languages that there is orderly variation in the choice of perfective auxiliary with transitive verbs. Specifically, auxiliary selection is sensitive to a hierarchy of aspectual/thematic verb types: some verbs require a given auxiliary categorically; others allow both auxiliaries…