A contrastive analysis should describe the different processes of conceptualization in the languages under consideration. Furthermore, a detailed semantic analysis of linguistic items should be undertaken to discover perceptual strategies which force the speaker to use these items. Research in psycholinguistics is valuable in these tasks. (DB)

It is asserted that many errors in a foreign language result not merely from inaccurately learned grammatical items or structures but also from failure to understand the meaning distinctions indicated in the grammar of the new language. Implications for language teaching are discussed. (Author/RM)

Believing that inclass evaluation of material gives the instructor information useful in making decisions about course format and content, illustrations of the semantic differential questionnaire are presented and explained. (ND)

The study evaluates effects of environmental cues of competence (such as diplomas) and the sex of the counselor on perceived expertness. Undergraduate students (N=64) were interviewed and subsequently completed a semantic-differential questionnaire. Results indicate diplomas and awards significantly influence the subject's initial perception of…

This article discusses the relationship in languages between passive forms and active forms from a psycholinguistic point of view. (Text is in French.) (CLK)

Two experiments examined the tendency for people to endorse personality descriptions allegedly derived from personality tests. Subjects were 93 male and female college students. Personal validation appeared to be unaffected by test source and personal versus generalized personality descriptions. The favorability-unfavorabilitty of the descriptions…

To explore adjective language development and examine its relationship to seriation, several tasks were given to 40 children aged 4-8. Comprehension and production of adjective forms were measured--vocabulary, coordination, comparison. Ability to order objects by size was used to assess intuitive-level seriation. (CHK)

Children aged 2 1/2-4 were asked questions containing comparative and superlative forms of adjectives in pairs designated as unmarked/marked or positive/negative. Differences in frequency of correct responses were greater between unmarked/marked pairs than between positive/negative pairs. No evidence appeared for a marking explanation of adjective…

Presents a corpus-based analysis of two lexical items: Modern English "hand" and "fist" and their Middle Cornish equivalents, resulting in discovering semantic and collocational differences between the corresponding lexemes in these two languages. The article argues that grammatical meaning may form part of the lexical meaning…

Examines "Head Movement" in internally headed relative clauses (IHRCs). The article shows that in some cases, head movement to an external position need not take place and demonstrates that this movement of the head to a sentence-internal position results from the quantificational nature of IHRCs and Diesing's mapping hypothesis (1990,…

Examines the modifier "quite" to determine how it is used and understood. The article examines published pedagogic materials, investigates reader interpretations of authentic samples, and analyzes the practices of experienced writers. The analysis shows that "quite" is highly context-sensitive and has an essentially indeterminate epistemic…

Introduces alternative approach to a controversial issue in Czech linguistics--the semantics of verbs of the type "rikavat,""delavat," and so on. The article demonstrates that these verbs can be called habitual verbs in the Peircean sense of the term "habit," and the key to the semantics of these verbs is recognizing…

Semantic primitives for time and space, as proposed in Natural Semantic Metalanguage theory, are examined for lexical equivalents in Hong Kong Cantonese. Temporal primitives are all found to have clear Cantonese exponents that can be combined as predicted with other metalanguage elements, with two exceptions. Spatial primitives all appear to have…