A study testing two theories about the processing of ambiguous sentences is reported. Results suggest that parallel processing and reciprocal interactions underlie the comprehension of ambiguous sentences. (RM)

Criticizes M. Halle's theory of morphology in word formation as too strong a generalization. (CK)

Recent psycholinguistic literature has developed differing interpretations of metaphoric sentences' comprehension. The inadequacies of the psycholinguistic theories of language processing which rest on the assumption according to which language is the expression of a relatively autonomous cognitive activity are highlighted in the interpretation of…

This study investigated the contributions of fundamental frequency, formant spacing, and glottal waveform to talker identification. The first two experiments focused on the effect of glottal waveform in the perception of talker identity. Subjects in the first experiment, 30 undergraduate students enrolled in an introductory psychology course,…

A study examined what trained phoneticians do when they are presented with a transcription task to carry out without any knowledge of the dialect they are listening to and without any explicit phonological theory as a point of departure. The "best" tokens of three categories of potential assimilation (full, partial, and zero alveolar)…

Much of the confusion surrounding the meaning and distribution of "(i)ci and la" and other partially cognate deictic terms in French can be dissipated if the terms are assumed to be related to the three grammatical persons: "(i)ci" is confined to the first person, "la" has taken over the second person, and…

A strategy is presented for explaining (and discerning) subtle differences in two words that appear to be semantic twins in one context but are not interchangeable in another context. This strategy suggests the following: (1) list several phrases that contain one of the problem words, then swap the second word for the first; (2) examine the…

English, and presumably any natural language, contains a small group of expressions referring to species of things found in nature. These species are defined by their internal structure, determined by genetics in the case of living things and by chemical or physical properties in the case of others. The reference of these terms is determined by…

Stop consonants after initial /s/ are standardly spelled as the unvoiced stops /p/, /t/, and /k/. Phonetically, however, they are similar to the voiced stops /b/, /d/, and /g/. Research suggests that many young children make consistent, reasonable, but unconventional, judgments about sounds and English spelling. This paper considers the case of…

A distribution of the Italian definite articles "il" and "lo" is proposed that makes use of both Steriade's syllabification rules and a language-specific sonority hierarchy. The incorporation of these rules results in the generalization that the definite article "il" occurs before nouns or adjectives that begin with a consonant that is a member of…

A nonlinear approach to phonology that is more constrained than linear theory is proposed. The theory disallows rules of feature changing, resulting in a stronger, more consistent, and more interesting theory. Specifically, it is suggested, and tested with data from Chukchi, that dissimilations and other nonassimilatory rules are rules of feature…

A defense of functionalism in linguistics, and more specifically the competition model of linguistic performance, examines six misconceptions about the functionalist approach. Functionalism is defined as the belief that the forms of natural languages are created, governed, constrained, acquired, and used for communicative functions. Functionalism…

A discussion of the role of linguistic theory in explaining language acquisition proposes that theory draws too narrow a picture of language to adequately account for the developmental phenomena of acquisition. While recognizing the importance of descriptive linguistic research, a new approach cautions against embracing description to the…

Research possibilities for a new paradigm in rhetorical theory. (CH)