The usage of gender, traditionally attributed to an early animist perception of the world and surviving in most Indoeuropean Languages, has lost its rationale. Its primary advantages are in distinguishing between homophones and between third person pronouns, but the impossibility of system modification guarantees its survival. (Text is in French.)…

Discusses and defends the innateness hypothesis - that a component of the human mind is a species-specific language learning mechanism--and discusses some implications of that hypothesis. (RM)

It is proposed that many students are unable to distinguish between unguarded writing patterns and literate or expository ones, and it is becoming increasingly necessary in writing instruction to clarify and impose the distinction between these patterns. This problem is confounded by current trends toward exclusively spoken language in the…

The Macedonian verb form corresponding to the form ending in "-l" in French is examined, focusing on the active past participle, which represents the past indeterminate or non-testimonial tense. Special attention is paid to aspectual, modal, temporal, and prosodic values, and all examples are drawn from the two languages. (MSE)

This booklet was developed in response to a UNESCO resolution calling for the avoidance of gender-specific language. The booklet is intended to help authors and editors avoid writing in a manner that reinforces questionable attitudes and assumptions about people and sex roles. The bilingual booklet discusses problems of ambiguity (cases where it…

Idiomatic or complex prepositions, phrases that perform the same functions as simple prepositions, are examined in Italian. The analysis is of only one subgroup of idiomatic prepositional phrases, preposition + noun, and looks for classification criteria of theoretical rather than descriptive value. It is concluded that the idiosyncratic behavior…

In a study about the comprehension of anaphoric relationships in text, three anaphoric ties in forward (antecedent-anaphor) and backward (anaphor-antecedent) position were examined with attention to developmental trends. A four-school sample was used, three in the United States and one in New Zealand. A test of comprehension of anaphoric…

It is proposed that the functions of the Mandarin verbal suffix "-le" are three: (1) for marking non-continual factual actions or events; (2) for indicating the "peak" in an event line; and (3) for explicitly marking anteriority of an action or event. Observations of written language drawn from newspaper articles and…

Speech communication teachers can assist students in gaining more facility with language by helping them become active learners or problem solvers through: (1) experiencing an event; (2) reflecting on this experience which leads to (3) the formation of abstract concepts and generalizations about what has been learned; and finally (4) incorporating…

A new theory of speech acts is proposed that draws a fundamental distinction between speech acts proper--declaratives, interrogatives, and directives--and the myriad social actions that are performed using language such as making promises, making offers, issuing invitations, and asking questions. The theory states that sentences are usally meant…

Problems emerging from previous analyses of epenthesis in Japanese verbal endings are discussed and a crucial relationship between epenthesis and assimilation is argued. The focus is on the occurrence of /i/-epenthesis with certain root-final consonants. The analysis, which incorporates the view that assimilation is accomplished by means of…

Fourier analysis, a common technique in engineering, breaks down a complex wave form into its simple sine wave components. Communication researchers have recently suggested that this technique may provide an index of the rhythm of conversation, since vocalizing and pausing produce a complex wave form pattern of alternation between two speakers. To…

Discussed the crucial meanings and usage of American language. (RK)

The palindromic pattern--in which formal features in the first half of a work are repeated in reverse order in the second--is frequently used by modern poets for a variety of effects. (JH)