Examines "do so" and "so do" constructions, with reference to the questions of verb phrase constituency and ambiguity. (AM)

Provides a history of the development of the theory of the "circumstantial" in grammar, presents its chief concepts, and discusses its implications for a theory of semantics. (AM)

Describes and illustrates several syntactic constraints on intrasentential pronoun reference, and provides operational examples of Paktus, a system that implements these constraints. An argument is made for the advantages of this system over another particular system that addresses roughly the same phenomena. (GLR)

Examines a set of traditional problems involving the indefinite article and its contrast with the definite article in English. The variability in definite interpretations and the nature of the contrast between "a" and "the" is illustrated, and an explanation for cooccurrence restrictions involving the definite article is provided. (62 references)…

In an examination of pronominal disagreements, this study examined how speakers on certain television interview programs resolve problems of agreement with formally singular epicene antecedents. The form most frequently used is "they," and some forms found in written English hardly occur. (54 references) (Author/LB)

Reexamines the notion of non-restrictive relative clauses (NRRCs) in light of spoken corpus evidence, based on analysis of 692 occurrences of non-restrictive "which"-clauses in British and American spoken English data. Reviews traditional conceptions of NRRCs and recent work on the broader notion of subordination in spoken grammar.…

Investigates the position of adverbial clauses in a subset consisting of 42 texts drawn from 6 text types, 3 from written English and 3 from spoken English. The article identifies factors influencing the position choice for various types of adverbial clauses. Findings indicate that clause length is not a significant positional factor. (nine…

Focuses on phrasal prominence in American Sign Language (ASL). Reviews the marking of stress and phrase boundaries in ASL, and discusses prominence assignment at the phrasal level, with brief mention of lexical stress. (Author/VWL)

Analysis of two Restructuring constructions in Italian, "equi" and "raising" structures, suggests that while lexical functional grammar (LFG) does not offer the kind of analysis previously used on this kind of structure, it does offer an insightful and interesting analysis of Restructuring in Italian. This approach treats…

Definiteness and indefiniteness are usually seen as essentially a matter of lexical semantics, in that whether a noun phrase (NP) is definite or indefinite depends on the choice of determiner. It may be more accurate to say that the position of the determiners within phrase structure configurations may correlate with the definite/indefinite…

Making this distinction is difficult because German here deals in prepositional phrases. More precise criteria for distinguishing may be expected from dependence grammar, and from application of the concepts of governance ("Rektion") and valence. Reference is made to experiments by J. D. Apresjan. (Text is in German.) (IFS/WGA)

TWO ASPECT MARKERS IN MANDARIN CHINESE ARE STUDIED WITHIN THE GENERAL FRAMEWORK OF A TRANSFORMATIONAL GRAMMAR. THEY ARE COMMONLY REPRESENTED AS "-LE," INDICATING COMPLETION OF ACTION, AND "-GUO," INDICATING THAT AN ACTION HAS TAKEN PLACE AT LEAST ONCE. THE PROBLEM INVOLVES SEVERAL SEEMING IRREGULARITIES IN THE FORMATION OF…

Spanish modal verbs may express necessity, obligation, probability, and possibility, in either their personal or impersonal modes. Analysis is based on examples of contemporary Madrid speech. Four modals, "poder,""deber (de)," tener que," and "haber que," are placed within a tripartite structure defined by…

Presents data that suggest that three factors--social variables, speech register, and linguistic variables--influence the choice of grammatical structure in Brazilian Portuguese where options exist to express the same idea. Examines the range of options used in responses that indicate general patterns of linguistic structures related to particular…