Previous studies provided evidence for a connection between language processing and language change. We add to these studies with an exploration of the influence of lexical-distributional properties of words in orthographic space, semantic space, and the mapping between orthographic and semantic space on the probability of lexical extinction.…

Researchers on bilingual processing can benefit from computational tools developed in artificial intelligence. We show that a normalized Levenshtein distance function can efficiently and reliably simulate bilingual orthographic similarity ratings. Orthographic similarity distributions of cognates and non-cognates were identified across pairs of…

Analyzes the purpose of metaphor, distinguishing five different types, proposes terms that describe its components, and lists seven procedures for its translation. It is claimed that metaphor is at the center of all problems of translation theory, semantics, and linguistics. (MES)

In 4 experiments, the authors addressed the mechanisms by which grammatical gender (in Italian and German) may come to affect meaning. In Experiments 1 (similarity judgments) and 2 (semantic substitution errors), the authors found Italian gender effects for animals but not for artifacts; Experiment 3 revealed no comparable effects in German. These…

Cross-sectional and longitudinal acquisition data for English, German, Italian, and Turkish children ranging in age from approximately 1 to 4 provide a preliminary answer to the question of whether there is a consistent interlanguage order of development of notions of conjunction. It was found that children first conjoin sentences by simple…

Compares indirect "wh"-questions and independent relatives, points to the absence of a clear-cut boundary between these two types of construction, and argues for the indispensability of semantic and pragmatic analysis for syntactic theory. The article emphasizes that it is the answer to a question that supplies the determinate element…

This volume is a collection of bibliographies designed as a basic professional reference library for teachers of the five modern foreign languages most commonly taught in the United States. After a general reading list, the bibliographies are divided according to the language they deal with: (1) French, by Andre Martinet and Stanley Lampach; (2)…