Analyzes a child's use of word-level phonological constraints in multi-word utterances. The selection and avoidance patterns and modifications of adult forms indicated the presence of a syllable sequencing constraint that governed grammar and word combinations. (Author/CB)

Discusses the automatic construction of abstracts from the texts of documents. Automatic sentence extraction is examined, including syntactic criteria and semantic relational criteria; textual cohesion is discussed, including the recognition of anaphors and noun phrases; text structure is addressed; and the concept of abstract-frames is described.…

Considers how some of the central features of Welsh can be accommodated within the Head-driven Phrase Structure Grammar (HPSG). HPSG is a framework developed over the last few years that seeks to combine the insights of generalized phrase structure, grammar, categorical grammar, and other theories. (22 references) (Author/VWL)

Reports on an experiment designed to identify how contextual information can influence children's performance on an experimental task involving temporal terms. It is concluded that contextual information results in a significant improvement only when such information can be used to satisfy presuppositions. (Author/CB)

Study of East and West Texans' (N=62) use of double modals as single lexical items and their syntactic and semantic characteristics found that neither Aux nor subcategorization analysis could account for both single-modal and double-modal dialects. Double modals, however, could conceivably be analyzed as two-word lexical items such as idioms or…

Proposes the use of semantic phonology, a simple method of sign phonology. Semantic phonology invites one to look at a sign--a word of a primary sign language--as a marriage of noun and verb. (GLR)

Discussed the relationship between definiteness and word order (WO) from three aspects: the position of the unquantified noun phrases as related to their definiteness; effects of quantifiers on WO; and relative order of different noun phrases in the same clause. Data verify that the correlation between definiteness and WO is valid for larger…

An analysis of a corpus of naturally-occurring data reveals that verb phrase preposing serves two functions in discourse: to affirm a speaker's belief in a salient proposition explicitly evoked in the prior discourse, or to suspend a speaker's belief in such a proposition. (29 references) (JL)

Presents data from a study that was designed to find pragmatic motivation of word order variation in main and independent clauses containing only three constituents: a one-valency verb, a lexical subject noun phrase, and a prepositional phrase. (15 references) (GLR)

In many languages, the article cannot occur when a possessive phrase is present in the noun phrase (NP). Argues that these patterns can be understood in terms of economic motivation because possessed NPs are very likely to be definite. Shows how the performance motivation of economy creates the competence pattern in diachronic change. (Author/VWL)

Shows that looking at individual semantic functions of grammatical morphemes is essential to explaining particular cases of noniconicity between lexical categories and their discourse functions. It is suggested that, in light of this importance of the functions of individual grammatical morphemes, it is now easier to evaluate why…

This paper tested a theory of syllable prominence with 11 children (ages 11 to 26 months). The theory proposes that syllable prominence is a product of two orthogonal suprasegmental systems: stress/accent peaks and phrase boundaries. Use of the developed prominence scale found it parsimoniously accounted for observed biases in syllable omissions…

Presents a discussion of teaching May Swenson poems. Notes that what students receive from May Swenson's work is a "consciousness of looking at writing in a physical way." (SG)

Discusses the bare-noun phrase (NP) complementation pattern of the Spanish verb "tener" (have). Shows that the maximality of the complement NP is dependent upon three factors: (1) idiosyncratic valence requirements; (2) encyclopedic knowledge related to possession; and (3) contextualized semantic construal. (Author/VWL)

Analysis of natural speech from 6-year-old (n=10) and 10-year-old (n=10) children suggests that, during later language development, the complexity of structures at the group/phrase level increases. There are also developments in discourse, including increased sensitivity to the role of topic-selection in developing the shape of a text, and to…