Develops Chomsky's proposal that the theoretical status of D-structure should be nullified in favor of alternation between Merger and Chain Formation, arguing that Merger has priority over Chain Formation in building A'-dependencies. Establishes a cross-linguistic correlation between wh-questions and quantification, discussing Chinese, Japanese,…

Offers an introduction to this themed journal issue dealing with the cognitive processing of the Chinese and the Japanese languages. Discusses processing Chinese, processing Japanese, and research needs. (SR)

Finds that, when only one reading is possible, subjects make a judgment directly, but when multiple readings exist for a given character the subjects first compare the possible readings and make inferences; only when this process is complete do they apply a strategy to identify a reading as On (borrowed from Chinese) or Kun (native Japanese). (SR)

Analyzes Spanish second-language oral spontaneous data from adult native speakers of pro-drop and topic-drop languages. Results show that all Spanish nonnative grammars contain null subjects in both matrix and subordinate clauses. Many nonnative pronominal subjects do not have the same value as native Spanish subjects, and subject pronouns are…

Investigates the acquisition of a non-null-subject language (English) by speakers of two different null-subject languages (Spanish and Chinese) in light of recent research in theoretical syntax that shows that different syntactic mechanisms are at work in the expression of null subjects in the two languages.(Author/VWL)

Examines a form of other-initiated conversational repair that is delayed within next turn position, a form that is produced by non-native speakers of English whose native language is Mandarin. Using the framework of conversational analysis, shows that in native/non-native conversation, other-initiated repair is not always done as early as possible…

Attempts to develop a contemporary Chinese philosophy of public relations based on the premises that (1) public relations in China must achieve status and recognition as a legitimate profession; and (2) a sound philosophical cornerstone is essential to achieve professionalism. (NH)

A lexical decision study with two groups of tertiary students (n=43) differing in their Chinese language ability found that even for adult readers differing in their Chinese language ability, lexicality, frequency of characters, and the consistency of semantic radicals affect accurate and rapid character identification. Teaching suggestions are…

Reports an experiment in which two groups of English-as-a-Second-Language participants--native Mandarin listeners and a mixed group of speakers of other languages--used a 9-point scale ranging from "too slow" to "too fast" to assess the appropriateness of the speech rate of narratives read by native English speakers and…

Investigated the acquisition of English syllable codas by speakers of Mandarin Chinese. Three participants' naturalistic production of syllable codas were studied and analyzed through VARBRUL and descriptive statistics to determine accuracy orders and production modifications of codas by length at two data collection times with a time span of 6…

Investigates possible developmental trends in children's invented spelling (or spelling errors) in Chinese elementary schools. Notes that regression analysis for linear trend shows that a developmental trend in the use of spelling strategies exists: at the lower elementary level, phonological strategies predominate; as grade level advances, the…

Demonstrates the specific ways in which the influence of Chinese manifests itself in the structure of the noun phrases containing relative-clause modifiers in colloquial Singapore English. Argues that while previous researchers have been correct in pointing out the substratal influence of Chinese, they have not gone far enough in articulating the…

Introduces a hybrid method for abstracting Chinese text that integrates the statistical approach with language understandings, incorporating some linguistics heuristics and segmentation into the abstracting process. Initial responses from application to Chinese newspaper articles show that the method contributes much to the flexibility and…

Experimental results show that a word-based arithmetic-coding scheme, a fractional-bit compression algorithm which is known to be time consuming, can achieve a higher compression performance for Chinese text. This article examines how to cascade the word-segmentation model with a faster alternative, the integral-bit compression algorithm.…

Interviews with 68 Chinese-American undergraduates show that immigrant parents have high expectations for children, but middle- and working-class parents have different resources and pursue different strategies in investing in children's education. Both immigrant optimism and pessimism were apparent. (Contains 70 references.) (SK)