Syntagmatics is the name given to the regular linking of speech units in speaking. In German, a rigid organization gives structural cohesion to the sentence. Ellipsis before a predicate adjective is discussed, wherein the sentence, through word order and intonation, becomes functional, although apparently syntactically anomalous. (Text is in…

This paper examines form and meaning of a class of simple sentences in which various constituents are brought into focus by the speaker. The Akan language is used, and the syntactic processes, or focus-marking, required to derive surface structures of the sentences are examined. (CK)

First language acquisition studies reveal that children overextend the minimal distance principle (MDP) during their acquisition of infinitive complement structures. The MDP dictates the interpretation of the logical subject of the infinitive in these structures and overrides marked lexical features such as subject control. Misinterpretations by…

Punctuation is not necessary in a sentence if a pair of adjacent words suggests an intentional conceptual relationship. However, when the pair suggests a relationship that is not a part of the intended communication, the writer must alert the reader, so some punctuation is necessary. When members of an adjacent pair do not suggest a plausible…

The option of verb-final versus verb-second (V2) order in subordinate clauses in German is subject to regularity when discourse context is taken into account. The artificial rule which places the verb at the end of any subordinate clause obliterates the feel for discourse structure that is still present in colloquial German. The option of using V2…

Inverted sentence order (order other than subject-verb-object) may be used to mimic the rhythm of real dialogue; give the play-by-play announcer time to come up with the player's name; indicate the relative importance of the subject, verb, and object; distribute information; and indicate connection with prior information. As a stylistic option,…

PRE-EXISTING ASSOCIATION BETWEEN WORDS WAS HYPOTHESIZED TO BE A VARIABLE INFLUENCING CHOICE OF WORDS DURING THE PROCESS OF SENTENCE CONSTRUCTION. IN THE FIRST EXPERIMENT, 32 SS (SUBJECTS) ENGAGED IN A PACED-RECALL TASK. MATERIALS WERE SETS OF THREE SENTENCES WHICH VARIED ONLY IN TWO NON-ASSOCIATED EMBEDDED ADJECTIVES WHICH COULD BE INTERCHANGED…

THE VERBAL ORGANIZATION RELEVANT TO SERIAL LEARNING WAS STUDIED. NINETY-SIX FOURTH AND FIFTH GRADERS WERE REQUIRED TO LEARN THE ORDER OF ONE LIST OF 14 FAMILIAR NOUNS. THE CONDITIONS OF THE SERIAL TASK WERE PHRASE CONTROL, SENTENCE CONTROL, AND NOUN CONTROL. THE DEPENDENT VARIABLE WAS THE NUMBER OF CORRECT RESPONSES. A REPEATED MEASURES ANALYSIS…

THE RESEARCH REPORTED HERE WAS CARRIED OUT TO EVALUATE THE POSSIBILITY THAT IN THE RECALL OF SIMPLE DECLARATIVE SENTENCES THE SUBJECT-NOUNS ARE EASIER TO RECALL THAN THE OBJECT-NOUNS. SUBJECTS (198 UNDERGRADUATES) WERE EXPOSED TO DECLARATIVE SENTENCES THAT VARIED IN ASSOCIATIVE STRENGTH, SENTENCE TYPE (ACTIVE-PASSIVE), AND THE CLASS OF THE…

Syntactic synonymy enables the speaker to use syntactic devices to say the same thing in a number of different ways. It is based on three criteria: (1) similarity of semantic content, (2) certain syntactic similarity between the components of the synonymous structures, and (3) differences in surface structures. The third criterion separates…

The theoretical notions of "grammaticalness" (in terms of sentences of a language) and "competence" (the user's knowledge of grammatical sentences of his language) are tested in one aspect: surface ordering of elements in putative English sentences. This paper reports the results of an initial contrastive experiment, with a sequence of studies to…

Summarized were eight studies comparing aspects of sentence comprehension skills in normal and learning disabled (LD) children. Questions such as the following were posed: Does the transformation of kernel sentences to passive negative questions affect sentence comprehension? Does the amount of feedback affect the level of sentence comprehension?…

This paper examines, within the framework of case grammar, the alternant relationship that holds between the simplex in (1) "The thought frightened me" and (2) "The thought made me frightened," and between the simplex in (3) "John trembled with fear" and (4) "Fear made John tremble." It is shown that while…

In order to explore the effect of semantic organization on the comprehension of sentences, this research, based on the hypothesis that fully grammatical sentences would be processed more easily than anomalous sentences, depended on data provided by 20 paid college students serving in individual sessions. Each student listened to 30 tape-recorded…

Two studies investigated preschool children's comprehension of the missing subject of infinitival complement clauses. In the first study, use of a Surface Structure Minimal Distance principle of the type outlined by C. Chomsky was distinguished from use of a Semantic Role Principle. Preschoolers acted out sentences in which the use of the two…