The relationships between a child's perceptual space and the acquisition of language are discussed in light of the work of Clark, Fillmore, and Chafe. Early language is analyzed as a semantic structure where linguistic ties are established between semantic features and inherent and relational perceptual features. Of these, it is the relational…

After considering the implications of the back-to-the-basics movement, the author concludes that there is little value in going "back" to approaches such as those typical of traditional grammar instruction. Instead, he suggests that sentence combining offers a basic approach to the teaching of writing. An experiment which began with four classes…

Proposes an approach to contrastive linguistics which takes into account syntax and semantics, and discusses the role of such an approach in explaining surface structure differences between English and Chinese sentences of the type: "He is a good pianist" and "I have a bad knee." (AM)

Discussion of the theoretical and methodological implications of six studies of the effect of children's expectations on comprehension of the passive transformation and of the Minimum Distance Principle. Study subjects were in kindergarten or elementary school. (Author/MP)

This article clarifies the position taken in the Greenfield and Smith book (1976), including relation to speech act theory, and elucidates some general theoretical issues in early language development. (Author/NCR)

Addresses the problem of defining the notion "linguistically significant generalization." A rigorous objective method for determining the significance of a generalization, based on probability theory, is proposed. The proposal is illustrated by applying it to examples central to theorizing in generative grammar. (Author/KM)

Kuczaj challenged the hypotheses that young children construct utterances by applying transformation rules to an abstract underlying structure. It is contended that Kuczaj's alternative hypotheses do not account for Hurford's data, and some of Kuczaj's new evidence actually supports the Transformational Hypothesis. (SW)

Discusses noun phrases which involve typically predicative nouns, focusing on those anaphoric noun phrases that apparently have to be derived from predicates dominating an entire sentence. The ensuing modification of Bach's hypothesis provides evidence for a particular theory of relativization referred to as "the promotion analysis." (DS)

An introduction to this issue of "Langue Francaise," on the relationship between linguistics, sociolinguistics and sociology. An overview is presented of the research methodology of each of these sciences, the contributions of generative grammar, and the point of view of the linguist, sociolinguist and grammarian. (Text is in French.) (AMH)

Describes a comparative study of interrogative words in Spanish and English, which resulted in a series of hypotheses about the way Spanish speakers convey the interrogative how plus adjective or adverb. To test the hypotheses, surveys were conducted with native Spanish speakers. Surveys and results are discussed. (AMH)

Challenges the notion that linguistic units which are equivalent from the point of view of being translated with ease from one language to another have a common deep structure. This notion is not seen as feasible in a transformational generative framework. (CLK)