Many researchers now believe that the representations and processes underlying syntactical development are specific to a "language faculty." If so, reference animacy would not be expected to influence acquisition of linguistic structures such as the passive sentence construction. Specifically, children should be comparably able to…

To examine the textual features that distinguish descriptions and fictional narratives in the products of eight- and nine-year old writers, a study analyzed 14 compositions (seven descriptions and seven fictional narratives) written by 14 third grade students. The samples were rated by two qualified professionals working in writing research,…

An analysis that seems adequate for simple constructions in a language may prove inadequate when more complex constructions are considered. A previous analysis of antipassive in Eskimo, attempting to refute two basic assumptions of relational grammar, becomes burdensome when its implications for a comprehensive analysis of all clause types are…

An outline of the grammar of Kanasi, a non-Austronesian language in the Indo-Pacific family of the Daga branch and spoken in Papua New Guinea, includes analysis of noun phrases (numerals and descriptive modifiers, genitive constructions, and adpositions); verbs (affixes; tense, aspect, and moods; and causation); predicate nominals; existential,…

In order to account for the ways in which combined and decombined sentences work, and to determine why some texts are perceived as being well-written and others are perceived as poor and ineffective, 11 texts were selected for distribution to students for ranking, all on the same topic--the Civil War. Overall, students ranked Bruce Catton's "Grant…

The phenomena of null subjects in child grammars of English are examined in the context of Nina Moss Hyams' proposals about these structures within the framework of generative grammar. Some problems with these analyses are examined and an alternative analysis is proposed. It is noted that Hyams predicts that children learning a language requiring…

A study investigated Japanese 3-to-5-year-olds' comprehension of sentences using the temporal terms "before" and "after" and examined whether contextual information helped the children respond correctly. The children were asked to perform a task with a toy either before or after performing another task with a different toy.…

The "Write a Sentence Test" was developed for use in the evaluation of student writing abilities in association with a project in Memphis, Tennessee. This paper discusses ways of administering and scoring the test, decisions concerning modification of the test, and experiences when the test was administered to sample subjects. All forms…

Four classroom exercises for second language instruction are described. In the first exercise, the teacher tells a story from a skeleton outline. Then the teacher pairs the students, provides them with a series of questions about the story, and invites them to cross out the ones they do not like and then to ask their preferred questions of another…

The relationship of readability, "readable writing" techniques, and comprehension was evaluated in a series of five experiments involving United States Navy recruits. Eight expository passages from a standardized reading test were revised by using word lists to simplify the vocabulary and a restriction in syntactic structure to simplify…

A study was conducted to determine whether counting correct word sequences is a valid measure of written expression for use in a formative evaluation system for elementary students. A correct word sequence was defined as two adjacent, correctly spelled words that were acceptable within the context of the phrase to a native speaker of the English…

The relationship between ease of comprehension and the syntactic form used to convey indirect requests was investigated among intermediate and advanced learners of English as a second language (ESL). The results were compared to those of native English speaking children and adults. Subjects were 82 college students enrolled in intensive ESL…

Two experiments were conducted on the use and combination of three cues that differentiate active from passive verbs: a form of the auxiliary "be," the morphology of the passive participle of the verb, and the case-making preposition "by." In the first experiment, 59 children aged 2.9 to 5.10 years were asked to interpret…

A first and modest beginning toward a grammar of the Hualapai language, a Pai branch of the Yuman language family, this reference book is intended for use by: the Hualapai people to reaffirm the vitality of their language; the Hualapai teachers in their preparation of language materials for teaching; younger Haulapais to find the regularity and…

The sentence processing abilities of a conduction aphasic adult woman with a documented phonological coding deficit were investigated in tests of auditory and visual sentence comprehension of reversible active and passive sentences and spatial prepositions, sentence production through story completion and picture description, and repetition of…