This study examined word meanings in the single word period of language learning. Ten children were seen for 5 hours each month from the time they started learning language until their median length of utterance was 2.5 words. All the children's utterances, and the extralinguistic contexts of the utterances, such as objects and movements, were…

A study investigated the validity of a linking rule of object affectedness; the rule states that an argument is expressed as the direct object of a verb if its referent is specified as affected in a specific way in the semantic representation of the verb. Specifically, the study examined whether the principle determines which argument will be…

Two instances of unaccusative verb mismatches in Japanese are examined. An unaccusative mismatch is the situation in which a different accusative diagnostic singles out different classes of intransitive verbs within and across languages. One type of unaccusative mismatch has to do with group C verbs, or verbs of manner with protagonist control.…

Data was collected from 45-minute conversational interviews of 20 Cubans, who arrived in the United States in 1980, to analyze vocalic processes in Cuban Spanish. Four vocalic processes found in Cuban Spanish (raising and devoicing of unstressed vowels, lengthening of stressed vowels, and diphthongization of stressed mid vowels) were examined.…

A model for pedagogical discourse that provides evidence to explain the operation of both instructional and regulative discourse in the classroom is presented. The model is based on a theory that the activities and concerns of the wider contexts outside school are relocated for the purpose of school learning, and that the resulting instructional…

A greater understanding of psychological treatment can be achieved through an analysis of the language used by those participating in such treatment. Several conceptual aids are needed: (1) a theory about how language conveys meaning; (2) a model of language in psychological treatment; (3) reliable units of measure; and (4) since psychological…

The absolutive voice is a fact of life for Guatemalan children who speak the Mayan language K'iche' and one that enters their verbal lexicon fairly early. Data suggest that by the time the children are 3-year-olds they have encountered several instances of verbs that alternate between active and absolutive forms, which may supply the evidence…

This study attempts to account for the distributional restrictions of Japanese head-internal relative clauses, and the restrictions on accessibility of noun phrases to head internal relativization in terms of the Empty Category Principle (ECP). The data indicate that there is a subject/object asymmetry in the distribution of the head - internal…

Two experiments investigated preschool children's use of the words "big" and "little" in three different ways (normative, perceptual, and functional) and in different contexts. The first experiment tested the sensitivity of 2-, 3-, and 4-year-olds to relational standards by asking them to judge an object's size in relation to…

It is proposed that, in contrast to Chomsky's argument, it is possible to arrive at an empirically grounded definition of innate linguistic competence that guides the child in the construction of grammar, particularly when this process is viewed as developmental. This approach treats language acquisition as a process of change. It is suggested…

An experiment is described that is designed to test for the operation of an input switch mechanism in bilinguals. Their ability to selectively avoid processing words presented in one of their languages while they are attending to words presented in their other language is described. The 20 subjects were all French-English bilinguals. The specific…

In order to test detection thresholds and discrimination for certain speech sounds, 10 individuals received tape recorded programs of speech signals transduced into vibrotactile information. Stimuli were presented to the fingertip, palm, wrist, forearm, and thigh. Results indicated that thresholds of detection could be elicited at all five body…

Verb nominalization in Navajo is a strategy by which children create category labels when the adult lexical item is not known; it allows for the creation of uniquely descriptive category labels. This study was based on a series of interviews with Navajo children aged four-and-a-half to approximately ten years, all native speakers of Navajo with…

Twelve pairs of three-year-olds and twelve pairs of five-year-olds were monitored in a play situation; their transcribed speech was examined for use of nominal reference, with attention to pronominalization and ellipsis. For the corpus of nominal references, there was a clear trend toward normal progression from specific indefinite to definite to…

Although both literary study and discourse analysis examine texts and oral discourses, literary study tends to emphasize the totality of the text while discourse analysis seeks to isolate manageable elements and structures to validate hypotheses about mental processes. Interaction has recently occurred between the two disciplines in…