Examination of the use of the simple present verb tense by three-year-old children (N=2) indicates that analyses in terms of tense or aspect are not adequate to account for its use. Results indicate a need to recognize the way in which the form implicitly refers to norms and thereby entails a type of impersonal motivation. (Author/CB)

Argues that a major cause of the inconsistent use of the past tense even by very advanced learners of English as a second language is an inadequate understanding of its actual meaning and discourse function. Suggestions are offered for teaching and practicing this tense in context. (SED)

Investigates the differences in the use of certain verbs of movement and location between native ASL learners and children of hearing parents exposed to signing outside the home. Describes the children's use of phonology, morphology, and syntax in repeating target utterances. Relates results to interaction of language acquisition and motor…

Presents results of two case studies involving the acquisition of English in a natural environment, as well as the results of two judgment tests in which subjects were asked to judge the grammaticality of sentences containing both correctly and incorrectly used dative verbs. (SL)

In this article, I discuss a method for teaching EFL students about language bias. The method involves (A) introducing vocabulary, (B) activating knowledge, (C) giving instruction, (D) group and individual practice, and (E) reflection. I also summarize guidelines for teaching students about the use of gendered pronouns, gender-loaded nouns and…

Previous theory concerning the variable behavior verbs in unaccusative/unergative alternation in Dutch, Hebrew, and Italian, which concludes that the unergative/unaccusative distinction is not syntactic but aspectual/semantic, is challenged. Discrepancies and inconsistencies are found in the grammatical functions of aspectual functional…

Results of a statistical study of the two imperfect subjunctive endings in Spanish and Latin American journalism show the use of "-se" to be decreasing, although usage is slightly higher in Spain. Use of the imperfect subjuntive with an indicative meaning is also slightly more common in Spain. (MSE)

Illustrates variation affecting the position of pronouns in complex verb phrases among native French speakers. Describes the methods used to verify the hypothesis that there exists a correlation between individual hesitation and lack of consensus in the community. Analyzes data from questionnaires administered to 551 persons in Switzerland and…

Describes a sequence for teaching the Russian passive construction to exemplify how a learning sequence based on a contrastive analysis and on error analysis can lessen student errors. These errors are caused either by interference from the first language or over-generalization in the second language. (PMJ)

Examines verbal "multipersonal" inflections in Basque and other languages. (AM)

Examines the spatial deictic features of Spanish, the study focuses on the topic's pedagogical implications for second- language learning and an accurate description of the contrast between Spanish and English deixis. The article concludes that there is a need to view Spanish spatial deictics as elements "in use" and to see them as…

Presents a study based on the analysis of contrastive Swedish-English data on modal particles. The article maintains that the meaning of modal particles requires an analysis of their pragmatic aspects such as the relation between the interlocutors. The analysis most accurately accounting for the multifunctionality of the particles is based on a…

Presents data from 4 Inuit children ages 2;0 to 3;6 that shows relatively early acquisition of both simple and complex forms of the passive. Within this age range, children are productively producing truncated, full, action, and experiential passive. Reasons for this precociousness, including adult input and language structure, are explored. (56…

Focuses on Korean English as a foreign language (EFL) learners' knowledge of the locative alternation and its relationship to theories of language-particular and language-universal properties. Results are discussed with reference to universality of linking, to the transfer of argument structure, and to Pinker's learnability theory. (Author/VWL)

Expands on the authors' (1995) investigation of the parsing performance on "wh"-movement sentences by Chinese-speaking learners of English. The article compares the difficulty second-language learners have in parsing subject "wh"-traces in embedded finite and nonfinite clauses with the problems they have in parsing Garden Path…