This paper addresses the issue of whether second language (L2) learners can reset parameters, by testing English speakers learning Spanish on their ability to reset the subjacency and bounding node parameters. The bounding nodes are IP and NP in English and CP and NP in Spanish. Eight American graduate students, highly proficient in the Spanish…

The concept of Arithmetic Story Grammar is introduced. Arithmetic Story Grammar maintains that any equation containing a single operand tells, in and of itself, a complete story with a setting, plot, theme, and resolution. Multiple-operand equations differ from their single-operand siblings only in the number of actions undertaken and the number…

The positional definition of Hausa noun and verb, which uses person and aspect markers "y, s, and t" as criteria, is criticized as an unreliable framework for identification of nouns and verbs. It is proposed that this is so for nouns because a word may appear as a noun without any of the three markers. Verbs are more central than the…

A study of Emai, an Edoid language of south-central Nigeria, focuses on the system of constraints governing tonal processes. Specifically, it examines the ways in which general processes of low tone raising and high tone lowering are realized in domains constructed by verbs and by preverbal auxiliary and adverbial constituents. Sequentially…

Dedicated to Margaret Langdon at the University of California, San Diego, for her contributions to Yuman studies, this volume of occasional papers contains papers presented at two conferences on Hokan-Penutian languages. The papers and presenters are as follows: "Yuman Linguistics: The Work of Margaret Langdon" (Leanne Hinton), which is…

Building on the visual orientation of individuals with deafness, and employing such techniques as visualization and directionality, a computer-based method of communicating syntactic knowledge to deaf students was designed. "The Question Game" was designed to model and help students build yes-no questions and WH questions (who, what,…

An obstacle in Natural Language understanding is the existence of lexical gaps, i.e. words or word senses that are not in the lexicon of the system. This thesis describes the implementation of MURRAY, a learning mechanism which infers the properties of a new lexical item from its syntactical environment and infers its meaning based on context and…

Reports of recent original research on linguistics by faculty and students of the University of Kansas are presented. Topics include: "Collaboration on Topic Change in Conversation" (Mary Howe); "Stories in Conversation" (Roberta Senner Hofer); "It's Like, 'What's Happening in the Evolution of Like?': A Theory of…

Even for foreigners who have completed intermediate or advanced courses in English, technical prose may prove difficult because of a lack of knowledge of vocabulary and syntax. A research program investigates these variables to improve EFL instruction. (CK)

The attempt to teach deep structure recovery skills to poor readers was unsuccessful, perhaps because of student attitudes. (JH)

The typology of VSO (verb-subject-object) languages cannot be explained in terms of the syntactic theory (Government and Binding theory) that governs the more common SVO languages. It is considered that VSO languages might be derived from underlying SVO structure. This idea, known as the SVO Hypothesis, is presented as a paradigm to which examples…

An investigation is conducted into the hypothesized notion of the interlanguage system and its effect on language transfer. The interlanguage system is composed of: internal factors (syntax, semantics, and phonology); external factors (sociological and psychological); and the typology of the native language. The investigation looks into: (1)…

This sourcebook contains an organized series of lesson plans for remediating pragmatic problems in adolescents and students of English as a second language (ESL). Introductory material describes the concept and development of pragmatics (the ability to use language as a tool), provides an observation checklist for clinicians to use in identifying…

The first of three articles on the ways in which people formulate their observations, this paper considers the basic assumptions of both syntactic and paradigmatic models of cognition and their applications in natural (i.e., human) and artificial (i.e., computer) information processing. The analysis begins with background information on the nature…

By analyzing the lexicology of natural language (English or other languages as they are commonly spoken or written), as compared to computer languages, this study explored the extent to which syntactic and semantic levels of linguistic analysis can be implemented and effectively used on microcomputers. In Phase I of the study, the Apple IIe with…