Presents a theory of questions, in the context of pragmatics. (AM)

Discusses translation problems resulting from semantic differences in legal and sociopolitical vocabulary, and the translator's responsibility in exposing erroneous or false presuppositions found in the source document. (AM)

Fourth-grade poor comprehenders were not affected by the disruptive effect of syntactic and semantic violations, while good comprehenders exhibited an increasing number of errors across semantic and syntactic/semantic violations. (RC)

Research indicates that evaluative (emotional) word meaning and denotative meaning (imagery) are distinct mediational mechanisms and can be conditioned. It is hypothesized that the meaning responses can be conditioned concurrently and independently. (Editor/RK)

Studies the influence of both a syntactic cue (i.e. agent-deletion) and a semantic cue (i.e. non-reversibility) on the evolving comprehension of passive sentences by young children. (Author/RK)

The relation between orientation task and resultant structure of the memory trace was studied using an incidental learning paradigm. Twenty subjects examined 50 pairs for meaningful associations (semantic task), and 20 for rhymes (nonsemantic task). (Editor)

If we held words half as dear as did our linguistic forebears, our speech and writing would be sharpened and our minds opened to new and splendid vistas. (Editor)

In New Zealand, interest in the local variety of English is increasing. Reasons for this are given. A brief survey is made of: semantic changes, the role of Maori words, neologisms and phonetic changes. Parallels are shown with the history of British English. (IFS/WGA)

In modern Russian, the particle-connective "Ze" has two general and distinct functions: (1) intensification-emphasis and (2) conjunction-opposition. As these functions are actually performed by two different particles, this article accounts for their development and etymology. (CHK)

Two predictions based on H. Clark's and E. Clark's hypotheses of the acquisition of word meanings were tested: (1) when learning words which have both spatial and temporal meanings, children will understand the spatial meanings first, and (2) children understand the positive member of an antonym word pair before they understand the negative…

Discusses utterances that are evoked in particular events and demonstrates that they require a frame semantics account, and in particular, an analysis in terms of scripts. The article also reveals some word-like properties of these constructions and argues that boundedness is a matter of degree. (15 references) (Author/CK)

Presents observations concerning the meaning of discourse particles, based on the comparison of an item in one language with its functional equivalents in another. The article considers three languages: English, French, and German, and concludes that contrastive analyses can only indicate certain aspects that must be verified by further…

Addresses the topic of discourse markers and, using the concepts of denial and contrast, with modifications, examines markers of contrast in English and Spanish. The article shows that the markers in each language correspond very closely in what they signal about the interpretation of the utterances of which they are a part. (Nine references)…

Professional translators were asked what questions they asked the clients before accepting a commission, and were then asked to comment on how the answers to these questions affected the translation assignment. The creation of an "implied reader" by the translator is posited, and a variable definition of equivalence is proposed, based on pragmatic…

Investigates how language events are reported in English. The article outlines four dimensions of choice for the reporter in any language: (1) the voice presented as the report's source; (2) the way in which the message is reported; (3) the reporting signal; and (4) the reporter's attitude. Some possible applications of the framework are outlined.…