A type of sound symbolism that has influenced the composition of modern Spanish vocabulary is discussed. Rates of lexical retention and loss are attributed to the degree to which verbs fit the developing morphophonemic and semantic patterns. (EJS)

A study of the spoken French of 120 residents of Montreal. The researchers were interested in the linguistic and social factors influencing the use of "avoir" and "etre." Results show that this usage corresponds to a tendancy to regularize conjugations. (Text is in French.) (AMH)

Examines the nonstandard constructions in Caipira Portuguese, a dialect spoken in southeastern Brazil, which illustrate a tendency to reduce morphological redundancy at the noun phrase level. This is accomplished by restricting plural markers to only one of the elements of the noun phrase--not the noun, as might be expected, but, rather, one its…

Proposes the study of Gullah as a means of discovering the African roots of Black English. (AM)

Discusses the problem of discrepancies between the pedagogical model of the French language traditionally used in language instruction, and the model of so-called "common French." (Text is in French.) (CLK)

Describes syntactic variation in West African English with examples from West African English literature and identifies and describes subjectless sentences, deletion of the -ly morpheme in manner adjuncts, omission of function words, reduplication, tag questions, substitution of prepositions in idiomatic usage, and focus constructions. (53…

Various commentaries are included in response to an article on filler syllables and their status in emerging grammar. (Author/VWL)

People frequently make assumptions about others because of their spoken or written use of a particular dialect or language. The varieties of English that people use are often regarded as indicators of corresponding intelligence, competence, motives, and morality. Such assumptions--frequently based on myths and misconceptions about the nature of…

According to the theory of Universal Grammar, the primary linguistic data guides children through an innately specified space of hypotheses. On this view, similarities between child-English and adult-German are as unsurprising as similarities between cousins who have never met. By contrast, experience-based approaches to language acquisition…

A framework is presented for grammar instruction based on sociocultural theory and critical pedagogy. It is argued that restricting students' learning to the standard German of the monolingual, educated native speaker is both insufficient and inappropriate. It is proposed that grammar teaching and learning should support learners as developing…

This study investigated the encoding of animate/inanimate distinctions in the pronominal systems of a variety of Bantu languages. Various encoding strategies are found to suggest that there is a strong syntactic opposition between animate and inanimate object markers in Bantu languages. Restricted positions and obligatory presence are particularly…

A construction occurring in African American Vernacular English (AAVE) is examined: NPi "call" NPi V"-ing", as in "the woman call herself working." First, a number of reasons that such a form might be overlooked or dismissed as an AAVE dialect form are outlined. Then the sociolinguistic method is applied to the…

An analysis of Old English phonology examines two traditional sound changes, the First and Second Frontings, that have been analyzed by different linguists with rather abstract theories. These analyses are refuted, and a more concrete and realistic treatment is proposed for each. Examination of Anglo-Frisian Brightening, or First Fronting, raises…

Attempts a preliminary typological study of sub-languages constituting one national language. Three types of sub-languages are distinguished: natural language, language of science, and informational language. They are compared to the three levels of language analysis, speech, norm and system. (RM)

This paper is a response to Lavandera's question regarding the limits of the study of language variation. Sociolinguistics is characterized by its desire to limit representational meaning much more narrowly than formal linguistics. In addition while formal linguistics views language as species-specific and designed to accomodate logical…