An analysis of Gungbe, an African language, proposes that the determiner phrase (DP) has a head-initial underlying structure, and that the determiner system involves a more articulated structure, with the DP including different functional projections. The determiner and its number projection host the specificity marker and the number marker…

Incorporating an understanding of different varieties of English (particularly Cajun English) and the appropriateness of their use into the language arts curriculum can help speakers of dialects understand the origins of their language and the significance it plays in their lives. Educators who work with students who use Cajun English need to be…

A study analyzed one form of speech act in the instructional materials entitled "De Vive Voix." The speech act in question was the invitation to someone to do something. The ways that the invitation is presented, possible variations, and how to make this rich and useful form more available to the student for communicative purposes are…

On the continuum along which theories of first and second language acquisition are located, the two extremes represent the classic controversy of nature (nativist) vs. nurture (environmentalist), while those in the middle view language acquisition as a result of a more or less balanced interaction between innate capacities and linguistic…

Reflexives and reciprocals in Ixil, a Mayan language of Guatemala, appear to have features that distinguish them from reflexives surveyed in typological studies such as Faltz (1985) and Geniusiene (1987). Third person reflexives and reciprocals seem to have the form of a possessed noun optionally followed by a possessor NP. Moreover, reflexives…

A study of the phonetics of everyday conversational interaction looked specifically at the occurrence of the "oh" particle, a signal of the receipt of new information. Focus was on the phonetic characteristics of the "oh" utterance in this context. Data were drawn from British and American recorded telephone conversations. It was observed that…

The history of one morphological pattern in Swahili relative clause structure, in which the relative particle attaches to "-amba," is discussed. First, the patterns of this construction are analyzed and illustrated. The evolution of this formation from an archaic verb is then examined, noting the difficulties in tracing its history…

This paper demonstrates that the phonetic vowel sequences of Konni can be analyzed as a dipthongization of long mid vowels. Evidence from phonetics, phonological rules, and tone is cited to support this conclusion. The vowel harmony system of Konni is reviewed and underspecification of features is seen to play a crucial role in explaining vowel…

A number of Seri verbs display a sensitivity to whether a goal, which is a term used for recipients, adressees, etc., is singular or plural. The data presented in this paper are of typological interest. It is argued that Seri has indirect objects, but that there is no one-to-one mapping between the semantic role goal and either the syntactic…

This paper analyzes the Kansa Indian language vocabulary collected by Prince Alexander Philip Maximilian of Wied-Neuwied during his journey through the plains of North America between 1832 and 1834. Prince Maximilian's word list is likely the oldest existent vocabulary on this language. His vocabulary, published in 1843 as an appendix to his…

This paper focuses on the long-standing problem in Bantu syntax of why some objects lose the ability to be realized as object markers (OMs) in the passive. The standard answer to this question since the work of Gary and Keenan (1977) is that the passive and object marker require the same property (e.g., a grammatical relation or a particular case)…

This paper expands on schematic theory through a review of recent work in the field of semiotics. Content and formal schemata are shown to be grounded respectively in perceptual (abductive) and indexical (inductive) strategies of inference. A third kind of schemata is based on deductive generalization and referred to as abstract schemata. All…

The French and English terms for characteristics of human beauty are compared and contrasted from the perspective of how sociosemiotic factors influence the ways different speech communities deal with reality. First, background and theoretical approaches to sociosemiotically based research are discussed. The adjectives examined are listed and the…

A study investigated the correct syllabification of intervocalic /tl/ consonant clusters in Spanish dialects that lack word-initial /tl/, using data from Peruvian Spanish. The study attempted to discover native speaker preference through the playing of a popular game involving, in part, dividing a word into syllables. Words containing the /tl/…

This study examines through Conversation Analysis (CA) the way requests for action are interactionally accomplished in naturally occurring spontaneous conversation, and uses the findings as the basis for an evaluation of the way requests are presented in published English language teaching (ELT) materials. The following areas are discussed: (1)…