Self-study is playing an increasingly important role in the learning and instruction of many subjects, including second and foreign languages. With the rapid development of the internet, language websites for self-study are flourishing. While the language of print-based teaching materials has received some attention, the linguistic and…

What aspects of spatial relations influence speakers' choice of locative? This article presents a study of static spatial descriptions from 24 languages. The study reveals two kinds of spatial terms evident cross-linguistically: specific spatial terms and general spatial terms (GSTs). Whereas specific spatial terms--including English…

This article investigates the information structure of verb-second (V2) declaratives in Swedish, German, and nonnative German. Even though almost any type of element can occur in the so-called prefield, the clause-initial preverbal position of V2 declaratives, we have found language-specific patterns in native-speaker corpora: The frequencies of…

Investigated preschool children's understanding of temporal relationships in terms of their comprehension of sentences containing clauses linked by "before" and "after". Also evaluated was the relative importance of order of mention and main-subordinate relations strategies in children's interpretation of temporal order information. (Author/SDH)

Asserts that the term "co-verb" can be replaced by the term "preposition." Linguistic arguments indicating that preposition is a valid category in Chinese grammar are discussed, and the historical development of the co-verb is described. (RM)

This course, one of 16 sequential courses comprising phase one of a part-time Bachelor of Arts degree program in Australian Studies, examines a number of theoretical approaches to the study of language, particularly those which place language in a social context. It is designed for independent study combined with tutorial sessions. Chapter 1 is an…

This study considers whether or not the various sentence structures in standardized reading tests cohere to facilitate the extraction of information. In the context of the theoretical framework of the study, a schema theory of reading, a diffuse discourse structure may legitimately activate more than one way of conceptualizing an answer to a test…

Two dimensions of the definition of idiom (the semantic and the structural) that may be relevant to the foreign language learner language learner are abstracted from non-specialist dictionary definitions of the term "idiom." The structural dimension is further subdivided into two aspects: place in a structural hierarchy, and degree of…

Two crucial factors in teaching spelling are the teacher's understanding of the material to be learned and the teacher's understanding of the nature of the learner. Psycholinguistics is relevant to both the material and the learner. In teaching spelling, it is possible to draw insights from behavioral and cognitive psychology as well as from Noam…

Public interest in language is strong, as evidenced by recent articles on spoken and written forms of contemporary English in major news magazines. The December 8, 1975 issue of "Newsweek" contains several allegations, notably by Mario Pei, castigating linguists for causing the decline in writing ability in the United States. In this paper an…

It is important that we reflect on the conceptual framework from which our study of language has emerged, since the problems, methods, and aims of what has been called modern linguistics are rapidly being replaced by the concerns of another framework or paradigm. Such new paradigms, to be viable, must not be distorted by starting points that…

A comparison of the syntactic characteristics of mathematical equations and Eskimo syntax is made, and a proposal that Eskimo has a level of structure similar to that of equations is described. P:t performative contrast is reanalyzed. Questions and speculations on the formal treatment of this type of structure in transformational grammar, and its…

Structural linguistic techniques were utilized to categorize the grammatical elements employed by Robert Frost in 46 blank-verse poems. Nineteen main grammatical categories and 26 verb sub-categories based on distinctive selection criteria were devised to examine the range and distribution of Frost's grammatical patterns. Five control poems by E.…

This paper demonstrates the means which Russian has to render English where the use of articles if required. The author concentrates on the function of the pronoun, preposition, and adverb which modify the Russian sentence. Numerous examples of English phrases and statements are provided in the target language. (RL)

Various trends in linguistics research as they are currently applied to reading instruction are described. The rationale of both Bloomfield and Fries stressing the alphabetic principle of sound-letter correspondence is evaluated, and research comparing the effectiveness of applying this principle with other approaches to beginning reading is…