Discussion of discourse modeling in artificial intelligence and computational linguistics focuses on a dialog model that incorporates the illocutionary aspects of information-seeking dialogs. The relevance of a theory developed for the analysis of written texts--Rhetorical Structure Theory--is explained, and future work is discussed. (25…

Describes a linguistic analysis computational system that responds to highly complex queries about morphosyntactic and semantic structures contained in large sets of language acquisition data by identifying, displaying, and analyzing sentences that meet the defined linguistic criteria. (30 references) (Author/CB)

Using computational analysis, describes and analyzes selected lexical, discourse, and stylistic elements of English in international management that are essential for public identification of management and the manager. (Author/VWL)

Reviews the history of interlinguistics in China through scientific and specialist journals, tracing a path from early discussions of language policy through growing recognition of Esperanto as an object of scientific study to the application of interlinguistics in computing and terminology. (Author/JL)

Explores the use of language corpora, focusing on the use of corpora in the classroom by students rather than as a background resource for teachers and materials designers. (Author/VWL)

Examines how language corpora can inform the pedagogic process and asks who is to be the voice of authority with regard to spoken grammar. (Author/VWL)

Evaluates three commercial computer-based language translation programs' translation of a university social sciences telephone survey from English to Spanish. The three programs, "Spanish Scholar,""Spanish Assistant," and "Spanish Amigo," were rated as unacceptable in their quality of translations by native and near-native Spanish speakers. (nine…

Investigates the redundantly marked comparative "worser" in relation to its irregular, but etymologically justified, counterpart, "worse." Examines the diachronic development of the form as well as its distribution in the written language of the 16th and 17th centuries. (Author/VWL)

Through corpus analysis and experimentation, this article demonstrates that both grammatical complexity (heaviness) and discourse status (newness) simultaneously and independently influence word order in two English constructions. Argues that heavy and new constituents facilitate the processes of planning and production. (Author/VWL)

Examines the extent to which linguistic descriptions can adequately account for their reality for learners and provide a reference point for the design of language courses. Special concern is focused on second language learners as a particular kind of language user. (Author/VWL)

We show that Kempen and Harbusch's ("Cognition" (2003) "this issue") arguments against our claims cannot be upheld. On the one hand, their alternative account of our data that is based on the availability of constructions with object-experiencer verbs is not compatible with the literature on the processing of these types of sentences in German.…

This article introduces conceptual grammar as an approach to the analysis and teaching of grammar in foreign and second language contexts through a combination of paradigms: corpus, discourse analysis, and cognitive linguistics. Although the approach is applicable to virtually any language and any construction within that language at various…

This paper evaluates the effect of Chinese non-native English-speaking teachers (NNESTs) on Chinese ESL students' struggles with English syntax. The paper first classifies Chinese learners' syntactic errors into 10 common types. It demonstrates how each type of error results from an internal attempt to translate a common Chinese construction into…

This contribution investigates the frequency patterns of the modal verbs as they occur in the one-million-word corpus of Cameroon written English. An analysis of dominant senses of some of the modals is also attempted. I have used results and statistical figures from British and American English (as reported in studies such as Biber et al. 1999…

Although Keenan and Comrie's (1977) noun phrase accessibility hierarchy (NPAH) has been shown to predict the difficulty order of relative clauses (RCs) in SLA, most studies of the NPAH have been on European languages. This paper tests the prediction for Japanese. Study 1 analyzes RCs in an oral interview corpus from 90 learners of Japanese at four…