Three experiments investigating the use of temporal information in a reduced relative clause to interpret verb tense of the main clause found that subjects rapidly assessed temporal information to resolve tense ambiguity, demonstrating an incremental approach to comprehension that uses previous discourse to continuously update comprehension and…

Responds positively to an earlier article that attempts to resolve the formalist-functionalist conflict in current linguistic theory. Concern is expressed, however, over the use of two terms, including genetic encoding and communication. (JL)

Suggests that not all linguists see the task of theory as relating meanings and sounds because placing meaning outside of language is to presuppose in one's description and explanation the very condition that languaging creates. If there is no meaning outside languaging, then languaging is not expressing, representing, or encoding anything, and…

Responds to a previous article on the conflict between formal and functionalist theories of language. Particular focus is on the endorsement that language is rooted in prior representational rather than communicative systems. (JL)

Responds to a previous article suggesting that the grammatical mode of communication arose via natural selection, concluding that such a theory of language is at best what a theory of language might be like if language had no linguistic consciousness. (JL)

In response to a previous article attempting to bridge the gap between formalist and functionalist theories of language, it is argued that the theory proposed compromises functional linguistics, which greatly lessons the value of such proposals. (JL)

Responding to the comments made by other linguists about a theory proposed on the origin of language, this paper refocuses on the issues presented in the first paper, namely the origins and evolution of language. (JL)

Three experiments presented nonsense verbs to two-year-olds either in syntactic isolation or embedded within a transitive syntactic frame. Found that children had identifiable action biases in the absence of syntactic information and that these biases were shifted by the addition of a transitive syntactic frame. (MDM)

Argues that the current popular negative critique of television, if examined carefully, reveals fundamental confusions concerning how print and television communicate information. Discusses the syntax of motion which distinguishes television from print, based on movement in space--a space that is both visual and acoustic. (SR)

Critiques Aoun and Li's (1993) syntactic analysis of quantifier-scope interpretations in English, Chinese, and Japanese, showing serious theoretical problems with their results and proposing a quantifier-scope analysis that avoids those problems. The proposed expert system considers several important considerations and arrives at a composite…

Three studies examined the role of ontological and syntactic information in children's learning of words for physical entities, such as objects and substances. Results reveal a strong and changing developmental interaction for the use of ontologically relevant perceptual information, labels, and syntax. (Author/VWL)

Proposes teaching three ways to suppress the agent in French: indefinite subject pronoun, pronominal verbs, and passive voice. Recommends that, instead of showing beginning students how to avoid the passive, they should learn how to stress activity at the expense of the agent. Contemporary or recent beginning and intermediate textbooks are…

Proposes a model to account for the uses to which the individual puts formulaic language, and specifically, what determines the choice for that person of a holistic or analytic processing strategy at any given moment. Formulaic language is used to describe a phenomenon that encompasses various types of wordstrings that appear to be stored and…

Examines Ga/No conversion in Japanese under the Move F theory of movement (Chomsky, 1995). Building on Miyagawa's (1993) analysis, argues that a genitive phrase raises out of a prenominal gapless clause in either overt or covert syntax. (Author/VWL)

Examines the reduction of syntactic options in South Texas Spanish narrative discourse during the nineteenth century. Argues that nineteenth century Texas Spanish made ample use of the absolute construction as an orientation strategy in narrative discourse. (Author/VWL)