Samples of the language used by 4 children were recorded longitudinally between 1.5 and 3 years of age. Children's expressions of motion were categorized into expressions involving a source, path, or goal of motion. There were developmental changes, including an increase in the use of words relating to goals as children grew older. (BC)

Demonstrates how syntactic constraints interact in the interpretation of Verb Phrase inversion. Specifically, it is shown that the auxiliary "be" is unique among auxiliary verbs in allowing VP inversion. (38 references) (VWL)

Analysis middle constructions in English, accounting for their key syntactic and semantic properties. The analysis rests on the observation that there are certain similarities between middle, "tough," and recipe-context null-object constructions. (55 references) (VWL)

The Introduction sections of some Ph.D. dissertations were examined to determine the significance of verb form in reporting verbs like "find" or "show." When forms were classified in relation to sentence function, some correlation with tense was found, but there were also correlations between tense and voice and between these two and sentence…

Examines verb learning in children in their second year of life learning verbs in various pragmatic contexts. Results are discussed in terms of the different learning processes involved in acquiring nouns and verbs and in terms of a social-pragmatic view of language acquisition. (34 references) (GLR)

Contrasts symmetrical and asymmetrical features of word order in Mandarin and English, focusing on the preverbal and postverbal positional contrast, and revealing several cognitive sources for similarities between the two languages. (53 references) (CB)

Investigates the semantical aspects of Oceanic language elements that function as directional verbs of motion (e.g., "go,""come,""return"). It is argued that human conceptualization of phenomena (viz. metaphor and metonymy) directly motivate the variety of grammaticalization processes observed with respect to these…

Active/agentive case markings are argued to be the products of successive diachronic developments, each individually motivated. Several factors obscure the motivations, including cross-linguistic differences in detail, shifts of defining features over time, grammaticization, and lexicalization. Explanation of case-systems requires understanding of…

Applying generative morphophonological analysis to the teaching of French morphology, this paper proposes a cohesive and systematic presentation of inflection based on the spoken language. It argues that French verb and adjective stems fall into two classes, variable and invariable, and that a single morphological rule accounts for alternations of…

Verb agreement in the K'iche' agentive voice appears to deviate from the ergative/absolutive system of other Mayan languages, leading some to treat agreement in the agentive as falling outside the regular agreement system as well as to differing views regarding appropriate syntactic representation of the agentive construction with respect to final…

Discusses a demonstration-based question-answer sequence developed for conjugating the Spanish verb "caminar" (to walk) that may readily be applied to a wide variety of verb concepts that students can grasp quickly through classroom performance, in any language. (two references) (VWL)

It is hypothesized that a number of regularities in the distribution of the two types of inchoative constructions with the verbs of change of state in French can be captured by an analysis whereby monovalent verbs of change of state may project the Patient argument to the subject or to the object position. (Contains 68 references.) (LB)

Argues that to improve the parameter model as a theory of language acquisition it has to be constrained in several ways. Results on the acquisition of subject-verb agreement, verb placement, empty subjects, and negation in German child language are presented. (55 references) (JL)

Responds to counterarguments made by Haile and Mtenje (1988) concerning explicitness, arbitrariness, and complexity as it relates to earlier criticisms of an autosegmental analysis of Arabic verb morphology and the introduction of an alternative analysis presented in Hudson (1986). (eight references) (GLR)

Discusses the prevalent trend in American English to verbify, that is to convert nonverbs into verbs. Offers criteria to help decide when to use verbified words. (SR)