This paper explores the intra-clausal relations of minimal locutionary and illocutionary force in Southeastern Tepehuan. It surveys the semantic and syntactic sentence types with primary reference to grammatical relations. The semantic propositional structures, along with their modal parameters and other semantic prosodies are discussed in Section…

This study is based on the assumption that texts are composed of two kinds of propositions: lexical and relational. Lexical propositions account for semantic relations within a clause, and they can be described as semantic role relations between a lexical predicate and its arguments. Relational propositions account for functional relations among…

The fiction of James Kelman is clearly not written in standard literary English. This paper examines some of the different ways in which the language of his novels and stories diverges from standard English, and discusses the extent to which these divergences contribute to his stated literary aims. It will be argued that Kelman in his fiction, is…

One characteristic of causative verbs in French, Spanish, and Italian is that the subject of the embedded verb appears to the right of its object (if it has one). A second distinguishing property is the Case that appears on the subject embedded under the causative verb. It is always either accusative or dative, depending on the transitivity of the…

This book examines Americans' obsession with grammar and usage, and how the flexibility and fluidity of the English language affect notions about what is and is not "correct" English. Confronting the popular image of the English teacher as a card-carrying member of the language police, the book takes a critical look at past and present…

Missing apostrophes, misplaced apostrophes, and unnecessary apostrophes are all common occurrences in many forms of written American English. The fact is there is no adequate explanation--in traditional grammar or in any other grammar--that accounts for all the functions and transformations that grammarians have crowded under the heading of the…

Kiparsky's "elsewhere condition" and the universal principle of Proper Inclusion Precedence in a theory of anti-extrinsic ordering are found inadequate for the application of the subrules of a mirror-image rule. An extension of the formulation of PIP incorporates explicit reference to mirror-image rules. (Author/RM)

Prior to 1959, Chomsky was a formalist. He retains a formalism in his mentalistic theorizing; he denies that the competence process has a correlate in speakers. Because he has based rules, grammar organization and derivations on the non-psychological process, they are not generally psychologically valid. (Author/RM)

In two studies, systematic semantic manipulations were made on a noun for unmodified transitive sentences which underwent active to passive transformations in a communicatively sterile context, and variations of animatedness on the noun constituted significant semantic properties in perceiving sentences that underwent transformation. (Author/KM)

This column examines the term "variable rules," which accounts for patterning in language. Variable rules can show variation in the structural description and/or in the process involved in the rule. (SW)

Critically comments on the renovations made by the Royal Spanish Academy in their newest outline of Spanish grammar (Esbozo de una nueva Gramatica de la lengua espanola). (Text is in Spanish.) (DS)

Rules for irregular Spanish verbs are presented here in an unusual way as an aid for students and teachers. (CK)

Discusses three different patterns of restrictive and non-restrictive prepositional relative clauses--their functions, variations and permitted uses. (CK)

Claims that grammar instruction does not improve written composition have led some teachers to a confident consensus that they do not have to deal with grammar, yet many still firmly believe in teaching it. Grammar instruction (meaning pedagogical or school grammar rather than scientific or linguistic grammar) can be viewed from the metaphorical…

This paper is a short tutorial in formal grammar with speculative examples of how it could be used as a research tool for task analysis, the description of lesson structure, the modeling of interactive dialogue, and perhaps the instructional design process. Gagne's notion of "events of instruction" is used in an example of the…