Investigates potential causes of decrements in children's understanding of the words "big" and "tall" by comparing results of studies of English-speaking children and results of a study of Arabic-speaking children. (Author/RH)

Examines children's errors in interpreting 'ask' as 'tell' in the framework of pragmatic development. Results indicate that if the children do not know the information, they relay the question, i.e., 'ask.' If they do know the answer, they supply it, i.e., 'tell.' (EKN)

Argues that sentences in the "have a V" frame are not idiosyncratic, but exhibit orderly and systematic behavior and are governed by strict semantic rules. Discusses 10 subtypes, each with a slightly different semantic formula. (EKN)

Four experiments examined the "distinctiveness of encoding" hypothesis with respect to recall of text materials. Specifically, they investigated: (1) recall of distinctively versus nondistinctively encoded material; (2) readers' interactions with the semantic base of the text; (3) encoding and recall of semantic content; and (4) the role…

Evidence from the study indicated that the hearing impaired develop syntactic patterns, constructions, and processing abilities for language that differ from those used by the hearing but that semantic patterns and processing abilities of the hearing impaired are similar to those of the hearing. (Author/SB)

Research results show that it may be possible, within limitations, to facilitate discrimination by infants of inappropriate from appropriate verbal descriptions of a visual event, by emphasizing the agent component in a simple sentence. (Author/JB)

In three experiments, three- and four-and-a-half-year-old preschool children were tested on free and cued recall tasks in which semantic and contextual cues were manipulated. When context and target items were integrated experimentally at presentation, unrelated context cues improved recall. A developmental increase in the effectiveness of…

Describes two experiments testing the hypothesis that thematic titles largely relieve the reader of the task of constructing a sense from coherent texts. Finds that such titles significantly increase free recall of structured or slightly disorganized texts, while only prolonged reading allows titles to raise recall of an unstructured text. (MES)

Examines how one interprets and reacts to dirty-word descriptors. Subjects judged how much they would like a fictitious person described with dirty and non-dirty adjective pairs. Liking was influenced by: (1) semantic interpretation, (2) intrinsicalness of the adjective for the person described, and (3) contextual relations between speaker and…

Discusses how Wesker conveys his central intuition about the limitations of language by employing verbal and visual games and rituals in his plays. Games take the form of playfulness to indicate emotional solidarity of everyday rituals with archetypal or religious undertones, or of games about the acquisition of language itself. (JMF)

Reading in the hearing impaired student is considered in terms of syntax, semantics, pragmatics, processes, and developmental programing. (SB)

Comprehension and strategy use of 18 autistic children was compared with that of normal 3- and 4-year olds. Subjects were asked to act out certain syntactic and semantic patterns in two experiments. Autistic children performed below the levels of the normal subjects, suggesting that autism is a semantic/cognitive deficit. (PJM)

Examines the speech act of complimenting as example of sociolinguistic information needed to understand problems of language learners. Describes semantic and syntactic structure of compliments in American English and compares this with complimenting behavior in other cultures. (Author/BK)

Discusses the ethical and rational qualities of speech acts. (JMF)

Analyses the meaning of the English word "lift" as used by French Canadians and shows that there is no universally acceptable French equivalent for this anglicism. Recommends that translators do not rely exclusively on one-to-one lexical equivalences but resort to contextual periphrastic devices when necessary. (MES)