An analysis of the causative verb construction in French as studied by Harris. Some questions raised are: Can a causative verb be considered an auxiliary? Which verbs can be causative? Might the notion of auxiliary include "auxiliary nouns"? Syntactic and lexical-semantic distinctions are made. (Text is in French.) (AMH)

Associating a clear function with verb forms will minimize difficulties for ESL learners. One important function in most learning situations is description. An area of "core description" pivoting on the stem and stem plus "s" verb forms can be established and learners can express most concepts in core terms. (CHK)

The progressive inflection "-ing" appears to be the earliest verb inflection acquired by children learning English as their first language. Explanations are made on why the progressive is rarely, if ever, overgeneralized to inappropriate forms. (SW)

A general guideline is offered as a reference point to choosing the appropriate preposition (a or par) for French causative sentences with faire. Full noun phrase complements of infinitives are treated. (SW)

A summary of a syntactic analysis of one hundred political slogans. Relatively few of them contain real verbs. This leads to the conclusion that aspect, not tense, is essential. Since political slogans use a mixed mode of communication, both situational and syntactic analyses are necessary. (Text is in French.) (AMH)

A study of the spoken French of 120 residents of Montreal. The researchers were interested in the linguistic and social factors influencing the use of "avoir" and "etre." Results show that this usage corresponds to a tendancy to regularize conjugations. (Text is in French.) (AMH)

Analysis of tense usage in 20 scientific articles from the "Journal of Pediatrics" reveals a hierarchy of sociolinguistic relationships among context-dependent rhetorical functions, context-independent temporal meanings, and actual tense choices. (Author/CB)

Points out that the "-ed" participle forms of psychological verbs such as "amuse,""offend,""disappoint," etc. are gaining increasing grammatical acceptance since the "by"-agentive phrase (passive construction) and the adverb "very" co-occur in everyday usage. Results of experiments done…

Compares the use of the English verbs "say" and "tell" and the Hebrew verbs "amar" and "siper" and then examines the degree of correspondence between "say" and "amar" and between "tell" and "siper." (CB)

Considers marked and unmarked structures in modern Arabic in terms of defending a basic unmarked structure which carries the least presuppositional background to which other surface orders can be related and a lexical treatment of number in Arabic. (CB)

Shows, on empirical grounds, that a verb phrase (VP) is absent in the Arabic sentence structure through specific examination of the language's syntactic property. (CB)

Reviews the limited amount of research regarding ways in which primary stress is assigned to second conjugation infinitives in Italian and then proposes a new perspective taking into consideration root vowels, root-final consonants, syllable onset, monosyllabic vs. polysyllabic roots, and canonical form. (CB)

Suggests tools for dealing with the seeming complexities of teaching the subjunctive mood, including thoughtful organization, objective analysis, and comparison with the students' own language. Continued use of unfamiliar vocabulary (nomenclature) and claims of language-specific subtlety serve only to increase anxiety among learners. (MSE)

Traces the historical changes of the verb "like" and shows how the verb's role in Modern English has a greater influence in syntax as opposed to semantics. This change in the verb's function has led to the formation of a new lexical subcategorization frame, or redefinition of the verb. (TR)

Describes a study of how the verb-form variables of tense, aspect, mode, person, number, and stem and suffix irregularities interact for lower-level students of Spanish to determine if performance can be improved by asking students to monitor an individual variable when many of such variables must be integrated in a particular exercise. (SED)