The author raises the question of how to relate modern transformational grammars to a body of empirical fact, and suggests why paraphrasing might legitimately be considered a feature of behavior relevant to linguistic competence. This study is introduced by a discussion of the empirical basis of descriptive linguistics, followed by sections…

The augmented transition network described in this report was developed in the course of work in semantic interpretation in the context of a computer system which answers English questions. In order to provide mechanical input for the semantic interpreter, a parsing program based on the notion of a "recursive transition network grammar" was…

The individual components of language -- on the semantic, syntactic, and phonological levels -- mean little or nothing as individual constructs. Language research must proceed according to a concept of linguistic structure which reflects the correlation of elements within and between levels of structure. (VM)

Reflexives in Japanese and English show a number of interesting differences. Morphologically, there is a single form "jibun" ("jishin") in Japanese, which does not vary for person or number. In English there are various forms which always agree in person and number ("myself,""himself,""themselves,"…

The theory is presented that there are in Indo-European languages only two comparative morphemes and correspondingly two degrees of the comparative, superiority and equality. (RM)

A discussion of transitive and intransitive verbs in Russian leads to the conclusion that the question of transitivity rests primarily with the meaning of the verb itself and with the resulting amenability to passive transformation. (Author/RM)

Most students seem not to have learned the transformational grammar their teachers said had been taught.

Argues that verbal prefixes in Hungarian should not be assigned to a specific category of their own, but should be analyzed as belonging to the category of postpositions. (Author/AM)

Examines Marr's and Stalin's opposing views on language, and shows how these ideas may be re-examined in the light of generative grammar and sociolinguistics. (AM)

The analysis predicts the distribution of cleft-like sentence types whose introducing particle is "this" or "that" rather than "it," and asserts a correlation between judgements of grammaticality of pseudo clefts and sentences containing free relatives. (Author/NCR)

The author accepts some of the technical comments in Dresher and Hornstein's article on artificial intelligence (AI), (EJ 161 384, Cognition, December 1976), but disagrees with several other comments. Although Dresher and Hornstein unquestioningly adopt Noam Chomsky's paradigm for the study of language, their real point is that AI researchers are…

This paper explores the interrelationship of syntax and semantics in two types of Verb-Verb construction in Mandarin, namely, resultative verb compounds and directional verb compounds. Evidence shows that resultative verbs are actually made up of different classes of Verb-Verb constructions, possessing specific semantic implications. (CHK)

The article looks at idiomaticity from the semantic and syntactic angles. After a summary of the problems arising from a semantic definition, some recent proposals regarding the syntactic behavior of idioms are reviewed briefly and evaluated. There is a sizable bibliography. (AMH)

Shows that evidence exists for a rule of neg-raising in French. Neg-raising and its domain are then reconsidered from a functional perspective, whereby the transformation is shown to be hedging device. (Author/RM)

A report on a study in progress of the acquisition of a syntax rule: inversion in questions beginning with "Wh..". Its purpose is to show how certain modifications of linguistic theory and practice can contribute to this study and to psychology of language in general. (Text is in French.) (AMH)