This report describes part of a longer study on sentence comprehension. The long range goal is to identify distinct levels of processing in terms of the types of linguistic and extralinguistic information each level uses. The focus of this part of the study is sentences with filler-gap relations, such as, "This is the girl the teacher wanted to…

This research deals with how extraction rules are constrained in cases where their unconstrained application would give rise to semantic ambiguity. Of particular concern is the application of extraction rules to noun phrases (NP's) where word order is the only indication of the different syntactic functions of two adjacent NP's. Samples from…

Although listening skills are the most utilized of the language arts skills, they are the least analyzed by research. Causes for this neglect include the fact that listening research has not adequately confronted the basic question of the nature of listening and has utilized correlational studies with ready-made definitions and formats, the…

Presuppositions, those propositions which the sentence is not primarily about but which have to be established prior to the utterance of a sentence in order for communication to go smoothly, are discussed. The notions of the Kiparskys (1970), Lakoff (1970, 1971), Fillmore (1971), Karttunen (1971), and Horn (1969) are summarized with examples in an…

Defining peak as the climax of discourse, this paper argues that it is important to identify peak in order to get at the overall grammar of a given discourse. The paper presents case studies in which four instances of peak in narrative discourses occur in languages from four different parts of the world. It also illustrates the occurrence of a…

A profile of the articles that appeared in the first ten volumes of "Research in the Teaching of English" indicates that throughout the decade of the 1970s more research effort was directed toward language and composition than was directed toward literature and more toward reading than toward nonprint media. Research for the 1980s should focus on…

This paper reviews some of the observations made by Vygotsky about the structure and content of inner speech and its precursor egocentric speech, also called private speech. Recent advances in certain areas of linguistics are used to clarify and develop these observations. In particular, the paper focuses on Vygotsky's ideas about the predicative…

In standard American Spanish, the velar nasal surface variant of systematic /n/ occurs only in syllable-final environments, when the immediately following segment is a velar consonant. In many American Spanish dialects, however, "ng" may also optionally appear phonetically in other phonological environments. Cuban Spanish is such a…

Previous research has demonstrated that 11 linguistic indices discriminate between truthful and deceptive language behavior. On the basis of subjective judgment, the original researchers arranged these indices in clusters (dimensions) of deceptive language behavior: uncertainty, vagueness, negative affect, and reticence. The present study sought…

Information is presented in this paper regarding suprasegmental features of Black English thay may cause reading interference for some Black children. Much of the research concerning reading problems of many Afro-American students stresses the segmental differences of the phonology, the morphology, the syntax, and lexical selection between two…

The author of this paper argues that, in the study of current usage, we need to supplement data from corpus studies by using methods that elicit use, reports of use, and evaluations of use on items which interest them. Ten methods for experimental elicitation of such data are described, related to one another, and illustrated with examples of data…

The possibility is suggested that the meanings of words are abstracted far beyond the range of cognitive concept, and that the role words play in the meaning of sentences is similar to the role phonemes play in the meanings of words. The meanings of the various forms are classed into a single paradigm known as the verb "mot-u" which is one of the…

Linguistic sophistication is the primary requisite for effective initiation of verbal responses to abstract stimuli. Young children find it difficult to initiate responses for unknown symbols and words. The most linguistically sophisticated children in a sample of thirty-six preschoolers were able to make effective responses to abstract stimuli.…

This paper asks whether the imprecision and complexity of natural language, as opposed to the language of science or logic, represent flaws or essential functional properties. It is argued that ambiguity can be manipulated by the speaker through environmentally derived characteristics. A discussion follows on the study of the functions of language…

This study explored whether an interaction analysis of ongoing communication can be useful in describing the process of self-disclosure. Eight women were assigned to dyads: two acquaintance dyads (subjects were acquainted through a small class in communication and had known each other for two months), and two friendship dyads (subjects had been…