Examines the cross-linguistic influence of native language topic-prominence in shaping and accenting the written English discourse produced by Chinese learners. The article endeavors to demonstrate that this interlingual discourse does not meet the criteria for adequate coherence in written English discourse. (22 references) (Author/CK)

Grammatical theories that rely exclusively on the categorical nature of constituents to determine their syntactic behavior encounter problems when dealing with cleft construction. The ungrammaticality of such constructions is indeed syntactic in nature and can be shown to derive from a general principle of universal grammar (UG), restricting the…

This paper argues for the legitimacy of a paragraph as a linguistic unit. The arguments are based on: (1) the rule of pronominalization that makes crucial use of the paragraph; (2) establishment of surface constituent structure of the paragraph as evidenced in an analysis of the structures of recipe and medical discourses; and (3) postulation of…

This paper is concerned with the treatment of anaphoric phenomena in a semantically based transformation grammar. It is argued that account of anaphora in terms of coreference are no better than accounts in terms of identical NPs; instead, it is proposed that a unified account of anaphora, which covers both quantified and unquantified NPs, may be…

This article describes phonological and semantic characteristics associated with the surface structure of some Japanese sentence intonations. The aim of the long-term study is to show the place of intonation in the total system of Japanese grammar. This particular part of the study is limited to the group of intonations which are characterized by…

This article argues for a set of ordered rules for morphophonemic alternations in the N-class in Swahili, positing /n/ as the class prefix and an abstract segment as stem initial in certain words. The rules are: (1) liquids and the labial glide become corresponding voiced stops; (2) the nasal prefix assimilates in coronality and backness, and…

Data on the complexity of relative clause formation in children indicate that right embedding precedes central embedding in development. Previous research on the subject argues that configurations where coreferential NP's function as subjects are less complex than configurations where coreferential NP's function as objects. It appears that the…

Standard manuals of Spanish pronunciation recognize that both [+continuant] and [-continuant] surface variants occur for the voiced obstruents/bdg/. Within generative phonology, it has been assumed that the systematic phonemic representation for these voiced obstruents should be [-continuant] /bdg/, with a rule of spirantization converting these…

This dissertation examines relative clauses in Spanish. The introduction compares various characteristics of Spanish and English relative clauses, while chapter 1 contrasts restrictive and appositive relative clauses. The question of which relative forms should be generated by the grammar in both types of clauses is considered. Chapter 2 handles…

In many languages (e.g. Latin, Greek, Russian, Turkish, German) the relationship of a noun phrase to the rest of a sentence is indicated by altered forms of the noun. The possible relationships are called (surface) "cases." Because (1) it is difficult to specify semantic-free selection rules for the cases, and (2) related phenomena based on…

This paper examines the various syntactic and semantic functions of the "ada" verb of "being" in Malay. The claim is made that there is an abstract uppermost "ada" in the underlying structure of Malay sentences that asserts or denies the truth of the surface main clause. A further claim is made that the…

This paper focuses on linguistic prosodic units related to boundaries between syntactic units. Specifically, rules for predicting the location of such boundaries, and factors affecting their location, are discussed. Examples are given on how prosodies can be used for syntactic analysis. Addressing the question of prosodic units and their…

This study begins with a discussion of what a phonological rule is, and how the term has been used in previous investigations. The relation between the child's phonological system and the adult's system, the relationship between discrimination and production, and the viability of positing underlying forms for children's words are also discussed.…

This paper examines the status of surface structure in transformational grammar, and the way that surface structure mediates the contacts between the phonological and semantic components of the grammar. Surface structure refers not to a single but to at least four distinct notions that do not necessarily define a homogeneous level of…

The author aims: (1) to show that generative phonology uses essentially the method of internal reconstruction which has previously been employed only in diachronic studies in setting up synchronic underlying phonological representations; (2) to show why synchronic analysis should add the comparative method to its arsenal, together with whatever…