In a study of English auxiliary verb usage, it is proposed that this category of verbs share a characteristic that explains some idiosyncracies: they do not show morphosyntactic inflectional irregularities. According to this account, the relationship between auxiliaries and full verbs is distant, and the morphosyntactic categories that auxiliaries…

This paper is concerned with a discourse-based approach to lexis and, in particular, the discourse role of lexical patterns or lexicalized sequences which are completely or partially preassembled and more or less fixed in form. Lexical patterns, their function in a community's codes, and the cultural differences that may arise in their use, are…

The purpose of this essay is to consider some of the practical implications of Martin Heideger's view that "Language is the house of Being," for the academic study of cultural transformation and intercultural communication. The paper describes the ontological basis of Heidegger's work, and the inquiry into Being, and contains sections on…

A study examined the presence or absence of the article with proper names for people in the Bible's book of Acts, using four categories of description, including: (1) the unmarked patterns involving the first mention of a participant and further references to the participant in the same incident; (2) the reintroduction of participants after an…

An analysis of pronouns in Proto-Algic, the ancestor of Proto-Algonquian and other languages, revealed that the Proto-Algic demonstrative roots and locatives had three inflectional endings, referring to spatial or temporal distributions of entities, which evolve into the gender systems of Yurok and Algonquian. Proto-Algic had two discourse…

A simplified pattern of noun formation is outlined that can assist the German teacher in helping students understand constituent relationships in long or obscure German nouns, providing an overview of significant patterns that covers a relatively complete noun system. First, significant patterns in nouns outside the process of formation, and…

The author outlines recent work in sociolinguistics dealing with problems of language and national development, arguing that in the Nigerian debate over retaining English or substituting a Nigerian language, sociological and linguistic factors must be considered along with the present political and administrative arguments for one language or the…

In an experiment in which preschool children were asked questions such as "Which box is taller than it is fat?" the results were interpreted to mean that the linguistic strategy of attending to the first clause is more resistant to change than the preference for simply choosing the largest object. (Author/RM)

This article discusses the equivalency in meaning of synonyms in one language, and the problems encountered in attempting to translate synonyms. (Text is in French.) (CLK)

New thinking is needed in the field of English language teaching as the Bullock Committee's report has shown. This article advances the idea that something could be learned from the approaches adopted by teachers of English as a foreign language. (Editor)

A study is made of the derivation of English verbs from instrumental prepositional phrases, and their morphology and semantic categories are discussed. (Available from: See FL 508 214.) (RM)

A discussion of when and how the adult teaching texts "Englisch fuer Sie" ("English for You") (Max Hueber Verlag, Munich) and "English for All" (Ernst Klett Verlag, Stuttgart) present and drill the English question patterns. (Text is in German.) (IFS/WGA)

This study examines the role of verb imagery and noun phrase concreteness in the recognition and recall of sentences. The results indicate that concrete noun phrases are more easily remembered while verb imagery had no effect. (DE)

Sentences containing "estar" + participle are analyzed in order to highlight their semantic characteristics. (RM)

Africanisms are characteristics occurring frequently in African languages but rarely elsewhere. This paper reviews Africanisms presented by Greenberg and Larochette and submits a number of others with sociolinguistic and psycholinguistic relevance. Items are grouped according to phonology, morphology, syntax and lexicon. (CK)