Compares conversion, a morphological process by which a word formed without explicit derivational mark, to phenomenon of multifunctionality; discusses with reference to alternative label of zero-derivation and directonality. Drawing on English and Italian second-language acquisition data, study shows process is productive from initial stages of…

Four experiments on the acquisition of binding are compared, two conducted with Italian-speaking children and two with English-speaking children. English-speaking children's mastery of pronominal binding is found to lag behind their mastery of binding for anaphors and R-expressions. (61 references) (Author/LB)

It is argued that the general consensus of researchers of child language that the grammatical system underlying the child's earliest multiword utterances is semantically-based, fails to provide an adequate description of even the earliest multiword utterances, and that the most sparing account of the acquisition data must include reference to…

Analyzes ellipsis, pronominalization, emphatic stress, the indefinite article, the definite article, and initialization as used by child and adult speakers of English, Hungarian, and Italian. Conclusions: marked differences between the languages; early learning of the functions of the devices; some changes with age. (Author/EJS)

Evaluates the contribution of visuo-gestural modality versus linguistic factors in determining the order of elements in sign language. The results of a study show that Italian Sign Language differs along significant lines from both spoken Italian and pantomime. (22 references) (GLR)

Comparison of Italian and English-speaking children's (N=200) segmentation abilities indicated that the discrepancies between the language groups reflected the children's phonologic and orthographic differences. (CB)

Investigated the possible effects of two types of form-focused instruction on the acquisition of a specific feature of the Italian verbal morphology system. Processing instruction was compared to an output-based type of grammar instruction. (Author/VWL)

Discusses catalog records for non-English books created by European booksellers and loaded into OCLC; describes a study of Italian language monographs to compare vendor records with Library of Congress and OCLC member libraries' records; and considers changes in cataloging workflow needed to edit records to include Library of Congress call numbers…

A study compared and contrasted the use of openings, summational closings, and closures in Italian and U.S. business letters to examine the role of culture in international business communication. It is argued that the Italian business letter should be studied in a functional intra-cultural perspective where its meaning creates and maintains…

Analysis of the spontaneous speech of English- and Italian-speaking children with specific language impairment indicated that word-final consonants adversely influenced Italian subjects' tendency to use articles. There was no evidence of syntactic differences between the language groups. (Author/CB)

Supports claim that linguistic and psycholinguistic accounts based on study of English may prove unreliable as guides to sentence processing in even closely related languages such as German and Italian. Results of a test of sentence interpretation indicate that English-speaking Americans rely overwhelmingly on word order, Germans rely on both…

Develops an extended and precise rendering of the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) in order to clarify difficulties in analyzing Italian. The method used is the paradigm method of analysis since there are no universal phonemic rules of pronunciation that will allow one to correctly pronounce Italian. Tables of transcriptions are included. (32…

Examined the roles of learning method, word frequency, and cognate status in the learning of 80 Italian words by 56 adult Dutch learners previously unfamiliar with Italian. Two learning methods were contrasted: word learning, where the Italian word was presented with its translation in Dutch, and picture learning, where it was presented with a…

Knowledge gained from the theoretical and empirical literature on social support theory, family systems theory, and social ecology provide the foundation for a model which studies stress, support systems, and coping patterns within the family. Puerto Rican (N=87) and Italian (N=49) families were interviewed to identify stress factors and coping…

Investigates the reintroduction of referents in the "Frog Stories" told by Italian children, aged 4-10 (n=100). The study confirms that elementary school children are more competent than preschoolers in integrating the semantic content of the current utterance into the context generated by previous discourse.(Author/JL)