The human sentence parsing device assigns phrase structure to sentences in two steps. The first stage parser assigns lexical and phrasal nodes to substrings of words. The second stage parser then adds higher nodes to link these phrasal packages together into a complete phrase marker. This model is compared with others. (Author/RD)

Children ranging in age from three to seven years acted out the meaning of reversible active, cleft, passive, and inverted cleft sentences. (JMB)

A set of five noun features proposed by Chomsky for characterizing the selectional restriction of English verbs are examined. Examples are presented to show how the "small" set of features is both "too broad" and "too narrow" at once. (SW)

In English there seems to be a large group of so-called reflexive verbs that do not possess any definable reflexive meaning. Grammatical reflexives are distinguishable from semantic reflexives and display considerable variation from one another also. Eight patterns or groupings of verbs are considered. (Author/SW)

Summaries are reported of papers presented at a symposium on Chinese linguistics held in July 1977 at the University of Hawaii. Topics of the program were: semantics and functions, syntactic relations, diachronic phonology, synchronic phonology and phonetics, and aspect and time relations. (SW)

Ordering preferences for English adjectives in attributive (prenominal) and predicative (postnominal) positions were found to be in general agreement. Semantically congruent and incongruent adjectives were compared regarding ordering preferences and a "borrowing" theory is proposed. (CHK)

Sentences in a high school French I textbook were examined to determine the extent to which the writers controlled French syntactic surface structures in terms of their differences with English equivalents. Results show students were exposed to L1-L2 syntactic differences without explanation, and such sentences could cause future difficulties.…

A study of the predicate adjective in Esperanto based on the opposition established between the complementary classifications, monemes and words. Because morphological complications do not exist in Esperanto, study of the two classifications could proceed to the benefit of the study of other languages. (Text is in French.) (AMH)

A two-dimensional system used by speakers of Spanish to make imperative utterances is outlined. The system consists of the basic verb forms that make up the nuclei of such utterances and oblique marker usage, which consists for the most part of syntactic modification of base forms. (Author/HP)

An analysis is given of certain clitic pronouns that are the source of confusion in the classroom and for which fully satisfying explanations are not to be found in traditional grammars and contemporary studies. (Author/HP)

Sentence comprehension was examined as a function of speaking rate, sentence difficulty, and listener age and sex. Subjects were 360 normal children aged 5-9. (BRT)

The continuation of articles on the passive voice appearing in the "Grammaire vivante" section of the periodical. The production of the passive sentence is considered under two headings: the simple verb and the complex verbal group. (Text is in French.) (AMH)

This installment of the series on the passive considers the subject and the object of the verb under the following headings: part of speech, circumstantial objects and the relationship between clauses and sentences. (Text is in French.) (AMH)

Proposes that a traditional rule of French grammar concerning the impersonal expression (il + est + adjective + de + infinitive) is so oversimplified as to be fallacious and untenable. (MSE)

Reports two experiments examining the abilities of normal children ages five to seven years and deaf-mute children ages 11 to 18 years in tasks demanding comprehension, production, and imitation of passive-voice and double-negative sentences. (Author/RH)