Examines epistemic modality in English, the kinds of qualification a basic statement like "he's right" undergoes when changed to "I think he's right" or "he must be right," and creates a structure for its analysis. Simple scales of modality are rejected and pedagogical implications are discussed. (MSE)

Points out that the "-ed" participle forms of psychological verbs such as "amuse,""offend,""disappoint," etc. are gaining increasing grammatical acceptance since the "by"-agentive phrase (passive construction) and the adverb "very" co-occur in everyday usage. Results of experiments done…

Compares the use of the English verbs "say" and "tell" and the Hebrew verbs "amar" and "siper" and then examines the degree of correspondence between "say" and "amar" and between "tell" and "siper." (CB)

Examines why the French verb of motion "passer" is used so much more widely in French than its English cognate "pass" is in English and identifies features of "passer" that distinguish it from similar motion verbs in French, concluding that the key is its relatively neutral semantic content. English avoids the…

Supports the claim that aspect in English and written Arabic is a function of a variety of sentential elements including verb form, verb class, and adverbials. The two languages are basically similar in regard to two universal aspectual distinctions: syntactic categories and semantic categories. (TR)

Analyzes the differences in usage of the Spanish preterite and imperfect by native speakers of Spanish and by nonnative speakers of Spanish whose first language is Dutch. Teaching strategies to enhance the learner's awareness of context and sequencing are suggested. (LMO)

Comparison of Chinese, Malay, and Tamil primary school students' responses to a test featuring 19 error types related to English verb structure revealed no significant differences between the three groups' selection of developmental errors. The test also showed promise in measuring students' English accuracy as opposed to fluency. (CB)

Examination and comparison of the forms and functions of the passive structures used by native and second-language writers of English and Japanese yielded strong empirical proof of definite interplay and transfer of native language form and function to the target language, resulting in awkward, if not completely incorrect, sentences. (27…