Nominalization of possessive sentences in Russian is discussed. It is maintained that all lexical surface items originate as terms in a situation model, and that their actualization as different parts of speech is language-specific. Language data are used to support a locative interpretation of the semantic model. (CHK)

Analysis of the performance of second-, fourth-, sixth-grade, and college-level subjects on picture-word interference tasks indicated that distractor words belonging to the same semantic category as pictures produced more interference than either unrelated words or nonsense trigrams. (Author/JMB)

A short description of the wide variety in the listing of compound prepositions in most dictionaries. A few suggestions for systematization are made. (AMH)

Usage of the German "doch" is explained as an aid to teaching. (CHK)

Surveyed 54 young, 54 middle-aged, and 54 older adults on connotative meanings of 10 common nouns referring to older persons. Results were similar across age groups. Mature American, Senior Citizen, and Retired Person were rated generally positively while Aged, Elderly, and nouns using "old" were rated more negatively. (Author/NB)

Reviews evidence supporting the Contrastive Hypothesis, revealing little support for the hypothesis that young children automatically assume that every two words in their lexicons contrast. Theoretical problems with the positions that children assign words to semantic fields as they are acquiring them and that innovations are used to fill lexical…

Discusses a study that examines which combination of animate and inanimate actors (anyone or anything performing an action) and patients (the thing that is the object of action) two-year-olds view as prototypical. Results suggest that the actor category is usually acquired first for prototypical sentences with animate actors and inanimate…

Discusses experiments that investigated the sources of knowledge that are employed in spoken word identification. The interactive assumption that normal spoken word identification processes require the presence of semantic and syntactic context and the special status given to word-initial acoustic-phonetic information in cohort theory were…

Describes how traditional rules that explain the position of adverbs in English are not always adequate due to unconsidered criteria. More precise position rules need to be formulated, including a clearer approach to distinguishing when adverbials modify subjects or verbs. More accurate adverbial position rules are presented and discussed in…

Confirmatory factor analysis was used to test Fiedler's contingency model of leader effectiveness, which characterizes leaders as either task-oriented or motivated by successful interpersonal relations. Results using undergraduate students had negative implications for the validity of the model and the Least Preferred Coworker Scale. (GDC)

Examines linguistic and extralinguistic factors involved in ascertaining meaning in the simultaneous interpretation process. Extralinguistic cues include: (1)background information; (2) speaker's goals and attitudes toward subject; and (3) the audience. Personal experiences and observations of student interpreters are used as illustrations.…

Describes the uniterm system of coordinate indexing and examines its applicability to the indexing of Arabic literature. Unresolved problems in semantics, thesauri development, and standardization are identified and discussed. (CLB)

A study determined what types of speech act five- to 13-year-olds and adults would define as "promising." Results indicate that children could distinguish between "promising" and "predicting" in terms of the speaker's responsibility for the outcome. (Author/CB)

The article discusses language structures of three hierarchical levels of event descriptions: (1) single-action events (semantic relations, aspectual meaning and lexical verbs or verb phrases, (2) event relations (tense markers, conjunctions, adverbs, perfect tense); (3) event schemas (lexical terms and phrases marking beginnings and endings). A…

Sixteen skilled and 16 learning disabled (LD) readers (ages 11-12) viewed nonsense pictures either without names, with names that emphasized the semantic aspects of the picture, or with names unassociated with the pictorial representation. Results suggested that semantic coding deficits in LD readers were localized to retrieval processes.…