This paper examines how tagmemics can be equipped with a notational mechanism to account for significant variability phenomena in language. A brief history of variation theory is followed by a proposal for a tentative notational system for marking variants. An illustration of this system is provided through application to various levels of…

Investigates the availability of surface representations for the interpretation of verb-phrase ellipsis. Results show that an elliptical verb phrase is most easily interpreted if its antecedent is in the immediately preceding sentence and that this can not be explained in terms of the unnaturalness of the passages with distant antecedents. (MM)

Subjects with internal or external locus of control were instructed to remeber as much as possible from an array of letter strings generated from a finite state grammar. While both groups attended to the exemplars, internals extracted more invariance and hence learned more about the underlying grammatical structure. (Author/SJL)

A study of the use of phrase-terminal extension particles in Montreal (Canada) French analyzed composition, sociodemographic patterns of occurrence, and discourse functions of 76 particle types in 4 distinct classes. (MSE)

Examines parallels in semantic structure between noun phrases and verbal predicates in constructions in which they are mutually constraining and contribute to the expression of lexical aspect and grammatical aspect. Data are drawn mainly from English and Slavic languages, which are compared to German and Finnish. (Author/VWL)

An evaluation of the t-unit as the basic unit of analysis of second language development in written form argues that despite the t-unit's advantages, the sentence-based analysis is superior for examining syntactic complexity in at least three ways: (1) it better characterizes learner knowledge; (2) it facilitates comparison across learners and…

This discussion of universe-scope relations in Chinese and Japanese provides a contrastive analysis of certain features in the two languages. A striking similarity in the deep structure of the noun phrase in both languages is noted and discussed in detail. Both languages have two constituents in a noun phrase which have a semantic relationship…

The first section of this paper deals with the attempts within the framework of transformational grammar to make semantics a systematic part of linguistic description, and outlines the characteristics of the generative semantics position. The second section takes a critical look at generative semantics in its later manifestations, and makes a case…

Presents rules for the correct use of the French pronouns "ce" and "il," based on the criterion of discourse coherence and an understanding of the principles underlying the use of demonstrative vs. personal pronouns. (MSE)

Proposes an approach to teaching grammar that calls on the student's imagination and frees the learning process from classroom routine. The technique uses examples of specific constructions in French poetry to illustrate principles of grammar and discourse. (MSE)

The collection of essays on the properties of Slavic languages in the context of the theory of head-driven phrase structure grammar (HPSG) includes: "Typological Similarities in HPSG" (Tania Avgustinova, Wojciech Skut, Hans Uszkoreit); "Auxiliaries, Verbs and Complementizers in Polish" (Robert D. Borsley); "An Architecture…

Explores Ritchie's research supporting the hypothesis that universal grammar principles are available to adult second language learners. It is concluded that the experimental principle is not an innate grammatical principle, that methodological problems are inherent in the experimental design, and that results are due to effects of processing…

Discusses the theoretical implications of an experimental pilot study on the acquisition of word order properties in the French spoken by Dutch native speakers. Results provide support for the universal grammar approach to second-language acquisition. (Author/CB)

Grammatical theories that rely exclusively on the categorical nature of constituents to determine their syntactic behavior encounter problems when dealing with cleft construction. The ungrammaticality of such constructions is indeed syntactic in nature and can be shown to derive from a general principle of universal grammar (UG), restricting the…

The extensive use of clausal embedding in legal language is examined. The extent and depth of left-branching, nested, and right- branching clauses in the 1972 British Road Traffic Act are also studied. The complexity of the resulting constructions, and the problems created for comprehension are described. The analysis reveals complex sequences of…