Discusses Prince's (1992) reanalysis of the information status of noun phrases (NPs) into two cross-cutting distinctions, one between NPs denoting entities that are new or old with respect to the discourse and another between NPs denoting entities that, in the speaker's estimation, are new or old with respect to the addressee. (Nine references)…

Argues that in an unmarked sentence the verbs will be stressed, and that in determining patterns of sentence stress the vital consideration should be the speaker's point of view. (AM)

This paper seeks to determine the essential qualities of proper nouns and to determine the differences between proper and common nouns by reviewing research and writings on the subject. Both proper and common nouns are found to connote the attributes of objects as their content. Common nouns, however, are those that identify a certain substance on…

Li's work, which expands the government binding (GB) literature on Chinese linguistics and contributes to understanding constituency and word order, is described. Important issues are noted, empirical or theory-neutral criticisms of Li's accounts are raised, and alternative solutions are offered. (21 references) (LB)

Examines how second-language learners compensate for their target language deficiency in communication using the One to One Principle of interlanguage communication. Results indicate that target language aspects not adhering to one-to-one mapping between semantic and surface elements are problematic to the learners and are seemingly acquired late.…

Reports four experiments examining subject-verb agreement errors in Spanish and English. Discusses cross-linguistic differences within the framework of the computational model of grammatical encoding proposed by Kempen and Hoenkamp. Suggests that languages differ in the extent to which the selection of the verb is controlled by features on the…

Advanced learners of second languages and natural language processing systems both demand much more detailed lexical information than conventional dictionaries provide. Text composition, whether by humans or machines, requires a thorough understanding of relationships between words, such as selectional restrictions, case patterns, factives, and…