Discusses expressions of future time, and suggests that different expressions of future time in English express different degrees of probability. Two diagrams of present and past tense and 25 references are included. (Author/LMO)

Describes the use of a particle-led analysis of phrasal verbs to reduce English-as-a-Second-Language students' frustration in learning about phrasal verbs. (Author/CB)

Following Jacobson's 1990 work, this study is another attempt to offer a unified analysis of the Japanese aspect marker "te iru" that touches upon Gestalt psychologists' ideas of figure/ground opposition, Langacker's cognitive grammar, and Kunihiro's cognitive analysis. (Contains 34 references.) (LB)

This paper argues, utilizing Lexical Mapping Theory (LMT), that there are modern Greek deverbal nominal predicates that take syntactic arguments. A small set of simple unification-based operations is employed to model the relation between the argument structure of verb predicates and that of the corresponding deverbal nominals with an…

Discusses a visual representation of the English verb system. This system helps overcome difficulties with the opaqueness of metalanguage and with distinguishing between key notions such as "tense" and "aspect." The article shows how learners can fathom the abstract meanings involved through the use of 'icons' that obviate the…

Examines the structure of titles in Spanish. These structures have a sealed character with respect to the extraction of their constituent parts. Certain instances in which this generalization appears not to be followed are analyzed, and it is shown that the extraction is a verb rather than a noun form. (15 references) (Author/CK)

The evolution of the Latin "teneo venio" to the Spanish "tengo vengo" is analyzed, including Menendez Pidal's influential treatment of the problem and some recent explanations. The hypothesis that loss of flexional yod was the fundamental cause of analogical structuring is reviewed, and a new hypothesis is proposed. (Contains 30 references.)…

Discusses two major theories regarding the origin of the Portuguese inflected infinitive: the imperfect subjunctive theory and the creative theory. Because the inflected infinitive is already established by the time of the earliest documents in Portuguese, no hard evidence exists that would permit a definite solution to the riddle of its…

Using framework of prototype semantics, TE-constructions (type of verbal construct in Japanese), are categorized according to underlying metaphors and related to central TE-construction in which K- 1K- indicate both motion and direction in physical space. Through descriptions, discussions, and examples, it is demonstrated that no adequate…

Demonstrates that structure and interpretation of Resultative Verb Compound (RVC) in the field of Chinese linguistics is neither indiosyncratic nor pragmatically determined as suggested in an earlier study. Rather, RCV formation and interpretation is determined by semantic features of verbs, and these features determine the well-formedness and…

Looks at the established theory that the verb "toru" in Old Japanese exhibits anomalous spelling. Careful examination of poems in "Kojiki,""Nihon shoki," and "Man'yoshu" shows that there were originally different verbs that later merged into one, "toru." These two verbs had different meanings. (Author/VWL)

Shows that endoclitics do exist in Udi--a language of the North East Caucasian family--which poses a challenge to the lexicalist hypothesis. Argues, on the basis of accepted tests for wordhood, that complex verb stems are single words and not phrases. (Author/VWL)

Four studies examined 2- and 3-year olds' word order and verb morphology productivity. Findings indicated that younger children neither used nor comprehended word order with novel transitive verbs. Older children comprehended and used word order to mark verbs' agents and patients. Children as young as 25 months added "-ing" but not…

Challenges assumptions regarding dative alternation and proposes an account in terms of one general constraint of what makes a verb a possible verb, which operates over verb-specific conceptual information. Central to the proposal is the assumption that the different forms of dative verbs do not only encode different conceptual representations of…

Investigates the role of performance limitations in children's early acquisition of verb-argument structure. Tested Valian's (1991) claims that intransitive frames are easier for children to produce early in development than transitive frames, because they do not require a direct object argument. (Author/VWL)