Three experiments investigated whether speakers use constituent ordering as a mechanism for avoiding ambiguities. In utterances like ''Jane showed the letter to Mary to her mother,'' alternate orders would avoid the temporary PP-attachment ambiguity (''Jane showed her mother the letter to Mary,'' or ''Jane showed to her mother the letter to…

This study presents results from sentence-completion and grammaticality-judgement tasks with seven German-speaking agrammatic aphasics and seven age-matched control subjects examining verb finiteness marking and verb-second (V2) placement. The patients were found to be selectively impaired in tense marking in the face of preserved mood and…

The present study is an investigation of complex sentence structures produced by school-age children in ordinary 100-utterance language samples. A total of 15 children with specific language impairment (SLI) and 15 of their classmates with typical language (TL) were the participants. Each child's conversational sample was coded for several types…

This study presents results from sentence-completion and grammaticality-judgment tasks with 7 German-speaking agrammatic aphasics and 7 age-matched control subjects examining tense and subject-verb agreement marking. For both experimental tasks, we found that the aphasics achieved high correctness scores for agreement, while tense marking was…

While reading or speaking, individuals break up sentences into "meaningful chunks." This is true of any individual with any language background. Failure to do so, in an L2 context, leads to idiosyncrasies, and may possibly create some comprehensibility problems. In this study, native and non-native speakers of English read an authentic text into a…

In this practitioners' guide, a recognized reading expert explains how educators, parents, and concerned citizens can spot ineffective reading programs that may hide under the "scientifically-based" banner. Although the term "whole language" is not commonly used today, programs based on its premises remain popular. These…

This paper examines the precise correlation between A-bar dependency and the notion of referentiality in Korean. Referentiality is initially defined by the lexical content that only noun phases inherently carry. It is demonstrated that the specification of phi-features renders arguments referential and adjuncts non-referential. This definition is…

A special word, "naynaa," which occurs in the Jamul dialect of Diegueno, a Yuman language spoken in the San Diego, California, area is described. Jamul has subject-object-verb word order, and its major word classes are noun and verb. Lexical pronouns are not required. Clauses may be connected by means of switch reference marking, and/or…

This unit of study introduces high-ability intermediate-grade students to the aspect of grammar which is usually missing from technically oriented studies of grammar, namely, the wonder and pleasure of grammar or grammar appreciation. It presents grammar as a powerful way for one's mind to make ideas out of language, and a way of inspecting one's…

Drawing from various current grammar systems, this text provides a practical and easy-to-understand handbook of grammar for readers of expository prose (language written for explanation and read for understanding). The analysis in the book is designed to perform two functions: (1) help readers receive with clarity, if at all possible, the…

A sentence such as "I am going to find the store" may be reduced to "I[ma]find the store." This reduction consists of a reduction of the auxiliary, changing "I am" to "I'm," and an adjunction of infinitival "to" onto "going" to derive "gonna." From there, "gonna" is…

This collection contains five papers on discourse in a variety of languages. "A Stratificational Perspective on the Discourse Structure of Limos Kalinga" by Hartmut Wiens demonstrates the value of the stratificational model in looking at language in relatively small portions at various levels while also showing how its structural aspects…

In a study of English auxiliary verb usage, it is proposed that this category of verbs share a characteristic that explains some idiosyncracies: they do not show morphosyntactic inflectional irregularities. According to this account, the relationship between auxiliaries and full verbs is distant, and the morphosyntactic categories that auxiliaries…

Examines the influence of oral message organization on fact recall, patterning and problem-solving. (MH)

The necessity is asserted for constructing a theory of contrastive analysis which would incorporate both translation equivalence and "form and placement of the rules in grammar" as criteria for making decisions concerning comparability. (Available from: See FL 508 214). (Author/RM)