This paper describes how the problem of resolution of syntactic ambiguities is approached in the parser PHRASE, developed for use in experiments in automatic indexing and extracting. PHRASE is a multi-level parser for declarative sentences, in which the syntactic structure is built up in four stages. (10 references) (Author)

Three measures were found to contribute significantly to the prediction of comprehensibility: mean linguistic depth, the number of self-embedded structures in the sentence, and the number of conjoinging transformations in the derivational history of the sentence. (Author/FB)

Earlier version of the paper was read at the Kentucky Foreign Language Conference, Lexington, Kentucky, April 1971. (VM)

This survey of the usage of "to have" is intended to give the teacher "a clear idea of what he is teaching, of what is important, and of what to say when the less common patterns crop up in his lessons." (FWB)

From a corpus of over 47,000 spontaneous utterances from four nonstuttering preschool children who were beginning to use syntax, 4,881 multiword, disfluent utterances were identified. Semantic-syntactic structures were identified among the disfluent multiword utterances, and differences in frequency of structures were examined. (Author)

Describes and analyzes in detail the form and function of the English construction "as + participle", called the participle construction of characterization, or PCC. (EKN)

Ten nonretarded preschoolers and 10 mildly mentally retarded children (mean age 8 years) were compared for control over various syntactic structures. The retarded children evidenced difficulties similar to those of younger nonretarded children. (Author/SB)

Explores the interrelationships among mood usage, syntactic contrast and past temporal reference in Spanish. Describes specific effects of varying temporal reference on mood and syntactic signaling, and employs an inventory of five subjunctive determining matrices to show that such effects are best explained by means of a…

Reviews three Italian-French dictionaries recently published in Italy comparing them with an older one. States that all three mark a definite progress compared to the latter, for the variety and abundance of examples and the coverage of phraseology, but finds them lacking in the areas of syntactic and semantic information. (MES)

Examines the lexicographic definition as an informal analysis of the meanings of words. (AM)

Presents a functional description of punctuation as a delimiter of words, sentences, and paragraphs, and as a semantic and extralinguistic indicator. (AM)

A defense of the passive voice against charges that it is wordy, obscure, and ineffective. (DD)

Describes the steps in the natural process through which children use their syntactic, semantic, and phonological systems in learning to read. (DD)

Suggests that certain kinds of writing assignments encourage children to engage in writing at a higher than usual level of syntactic complexity. (DD)