Discourse analysis attempts to identify and describe the semantic relationships among units of thought larger than a word (predications). Two basic types of these relationships exist between predications, conceptual and nonconceptual. A conceptual relationship exists between two predications when they share a concept or when a concept in one…

There are three dominant conceptions of functional sentence perspective (FSP): (1) a sentence should be analyzed into several segments, each having a different degree of what is called communicative dynamism; (2) a sentence should be analyzed into two segments, the theme and the rheme; and (3) a sentence should be analyzed into two segments, the…

Punctuation and capitalization are basic, surface features of written communication. However, it was not until the nineteenth century that authorities recognized that punctuation marks should be primarily an integral part of the sentence pattern, not an indicator of pauses. Throughout the literature on punctuation two major purposes recur--to…

Almost every discussion of technical or scientific writing style mentions the passive voice as a stylistic choice to avoid. However, the passive voice does have legitimate uses in technical and scientific writing--the problem is to define the appropriate or effective uses and the inappropriate or ineffective ones. An examination of passive voice…

Analysis of the deep structure of certain Tagalog sentences reveals buried agents. In Tagalog, verbs are inflected for the case role of the subject Noun Phrase (NP). However, Tagalog contains many sentences which, on the surface, do not appear to adhere to this rule, because they are missing the agent. Among sentences which deviate from the rule…

ONE OF FOUR THESES WHICH FORM THE "SUPPLEMENT TO STUDIES IN LANGUAGE AND LANGUAGE BEHAVIOR, PROGRESS REPORT V," SEPTEMBER 1967, THIS STUDY WAS DESIGNED TO RESEARCH (A) WHAT SORT OF INFORMATION ABOUT GRAMMATICAL CONSTITUENTS IS NECESSARY IN A GRAMMAR, AND (B) HOW THIS INFORMATION CAN BE PRESENTED IN A GENERATIVE TAGMEMIC GRAMMAR. THE FIRST CHAPTER…

The principal claim of this paper is that the Japanese passive consists of two different constructions, each derived from a distinct deep structure and each having associated with it a distinct set of syntactic and semantic properties. One of these constructions, the "adversative passive," implies that the grammatical subject of the…

The central thesis of this book is that the laws of traditional "command grammar" are an obstruction to expression and are too difficult for a majority of people to master, as demonstrated by a progressive deterioration in general literacy skills. The book contends that the structure of the sentence is at the source of the present difficulties. It…

The purpose of this monograph is to provide a basic discussion of the general nature of syntactic complexity. The monograph describes how the rules of language produce syntax and raises some questions about reading difficulty. The contents include: "Arrangement," which discusses 12 basic sentence types, noun determiners, verb expansions, negative…

The primary purpose of this study was to determine if training in syntactic structures would increase reading performance of junior high school students. A total of 46 students in a predominately white middle class suburban school district who were reading at least two years below grade placement were divided into two groups: 24 students were…

A study by Brown and Fraser (1963) shows that children tend to use telegraphic speech, employing content and omitting function words. This limitation involves the grammatical or semantic complexity of the sentences. Braine (1963) attempted to formulate productive rules for the initial stages in the acquisition of syntax by identifying two classes…

This paper describes a plan to help high school freshmen with their spelling, vocabulary, and sentence structure. The first part of the plan used the students' familiar spelling words as roots. Prefixes and suffixes were then added to these words to increase vocabulary. Finally, the words were placed into sentences and the sentences were examined…

Drills in German word order were developed by use of random generation of sentences coupled with the Ohio State edit function. Differences between English and German word orders are a cause of interference in the learning of German structural patterns. German word order may be manipulated in some situations and must be in others. Although the…

This preliminary investigation grew out of the Project English study of written composition at the University of Georgia from 1963 through 1968. Toward the end of that project, attention was given to possible relationships between the quality of written composition and certain syntactic measures in student writing produced in schools using the…