The speed at which sentences with various kinds of violations could be rejected was studied. Compatible with the sequential model was the finding that noun-verb and adjective-noun double violations did not result in shorter reaction times than noun-verb single violations, although double violations were judged less acceptable. (Author/RD)

Descriptive grammars based on sets of rewrite rules were constructed to summarize the structure and organization of 120 entries in a second grade student's journal of class news. These rules illuminated the relationship between experience, abstraction, and generation of structure, and the use of structure to express complex thoughts. (PMJ)

Describes a sequence for teaching the Russian passive construction to exemplify how a learning sequence based on a contrastive analysis and on error analysis can lessen student errors. These errors are caused either by interference from the first language or over-generalization in the second language. (PMJ)

Among the topics discussed in a consideration of linguistic errors are the following: (1) errors and linguistic theory, (2) hypotheses on the origin of speech errors, (3) psychological reality of distinctive features and the syllable, (4) structural valence and linguistic errors, and (5) errors and text structure. (SW)

Describes the theory of "dependential grammar" and how it can be used in language teaching, specifically in the area of syntax. (AM)

A total of 336 French children between 4 and 10 years old were asked to draw representations of French negative sentences. It was demonstrated that the interpretation of negative sentences depends on phenomena of surface as well as deep structure. (MS)

Examines the system of relative markers in early African American English as documented in the Ex-Slave Recordings. Found a higher incidence of zero marking in adverbial than in nonadverbial relatives. The lack of "wh"-relatives found, as well as this frequency of zero subject relatives, is interpreted as evidence that African American…

Presents a study based on the analysis of contrastive Swedish-English data on modal particles. The article maintains that the meaning of modal particles requires an analysis of their pragmatic aspects such as the relation between the interlocutors. The analysis most accurately accounting for the multifunctionality of the particles is based on a…

Argues that essential property of metalinguistic negation is that it involves the echoic use of material falling within the scope of negation operator. This analysis receives support from an investigation of data from Korean. (25 references) (Author/CK)

Discusses the nature and causes of a common problem encountered by elementary English-as-a-Second-Language learners in Hong Kong--the placement of the intensifying adverb "very" in sentences involving a degree expression. Suggests an algorithmic approach to error correction to help students overcome the problem. (Author/VWL)

Expands on the authors' (1995) investigation of the parsing performance on "wh"-movement sentences by Chinese-speaking learners of English. The article compares the difficulty second-language learners have in parsing subject "wh"-traces in embedded finite and nonfinite clauses with the problems they have in parsing Garden Path…

Reviews some history of how lexical representations have acquired an important role in sentence processing research. Discusses relevant issues, including the importance of timecourse information in theorizing; the importance of frequency information in theories of sentence processing; and the question of the grain of frequency information. (42…

The validity of 2 implicational universals regarding constituent order in questions is tested in the English speech of 14 native speakers of Japanese, Turkish, and Korean. The interlanguage evidence is found to be generally supportive of the 2 universals. (31 references). (Author/VWL)

Describes a methodology for teaching the complex prose structures common to nineteenth- and twentieth-century literature. Identifies modifying structures, conditional structures, and periodic sentences as stumbling blocks for students. Argues that students should be taught the effect of these structures on the meaning of both the sentence and the…