Under certain experimental conditions, it was affirmed more quickly that a word belonged to a large category than to a small one. This, in conjunction with other experiment results, contradicts predictions of previous theories of word meaning and supports a feature selection theory derived from Garner's critical realism position. (CHK)

Presents various arguments on the etymology of the Spanish word "trabajo" from several Latin antecedents. (CHK)

Discusses how people bridge chasms of thought with insubstantial but named fictions to make it possible to cross them in imagination. (HOD)

Expands on existing concepts and notions regarding hypertext-based information retrieval. Topics include document characterization; characterization networks; query by navigation; navigation networks; and adding new links to the characterization networks with information about semantic relations. (LRW)

Four studies investigated how differential input affects preschoolers' abilities to learn novel color words. Found that four- and five-year olds interpreted novel words as shape terms when ostensive information was provided but as color terms when additional information, contrastive or inclusive, was given. Three-year olds generally did not make…

A framework is provided for the description and contrastive analysis of limited-domain syntactic choice in English and French. Using a corpus of naturally occurring English and French sets of instructional texts, the expressions available in each language for conveying the two procedural semantic relations of "generation" and "enablement" are…

Evaluates the BIA model of bilingual word recognition in the light of recent empirical evidence. Points out problems with the model and proposes a new model, the BIA+. The new model extends the old one by adding phonological and semantic lexical representations to the available orthographic ones, and assigns a different role to the so-called…

Seven peer commentaries focus on an article that evaluated the BIA model of bilingual word recognition in the light of recent empirical evidence, pointed out problems with it, and proposed a new model, the BIA+. Raise several issues of concern. (Author/VWL)

Responds to comments written in response to an earlier article by that proposed a new model of bilingual word recognition. Clarifies aspects of the proposed model that have led to misunderstandings. (Author/VWL)

This study focuses on the English demonstratives "this (these)" and "that (those)." It is shown that the uses of these demonstratives are related to their semantics, and an explanation is provided for why the many functions assigned to demonstratives are a result of a failure to distinguish their meanings from the senses…

Presents clues for determining whether "short passives," passive sentences from which the "by"-phrase has been deleted, are actually passive or stative. The clues include intensifiers, the verb "seems," contrasts, present tense, past tense, progressive aspect, and confirmation by examples. (CB)

Discusses the distinction between formal and contextual guessing of vocabulary in second-language learning. It is argued that formal guessing is more helpful and reliable than contextual guessing. (Author/VWL)

Argues that tables, graphs, and diagrams extend language's power by exploiting the Euclidean possibilities which a text suggests. Notes that graphic display elements form no compatible natural set and that their value and visual elements are decisively disparate. Concludes that graphic displays are unlikely candidates for unitary theoretical…

A review of studies on children's syntactic development in Spanish focused on their use of subordinate clauses within complex sentences. Results suggested that, although they made some developmental gains from 2 years of age, 10-year-olds had not acquired the full range of semantic and syntactic expression characteristic of adult use of…