This paper grounds a novel typology yielding three major types of English (L(eft)-extraction, defined by their relationship to resumptive pronouns (RPs): (1) B-extractions, which require RPs in their extraction sites, (2) A1-extractions, which allow RPs in their extraction sites, and (3) A2-extractions, which forbid RPs in their extraction sites.…

Proposes that the bei-construction, a Mandarin Chinese passive construction, is not derived uniformly, but rather, three types of bei-sentences must be recognized. Presents basic facts about bei-construction; shows consistent structural differences between bei-sentences with and without the lexical logical subject, discussing A-dependency and…

Uses a detailed analysis of a single grammatical problem to present the principal commitments and mechanisms of a grammatical theory that assigns a central role to the notion of grammatical construction. The grammatical phenomenon used to introduce construction grammar is the construction that licenses the surprising syntactic and semantic…

Examines parallelisms between surface structure and logical structure and why those parallelisms do not extend farther than they do. If syntactic deep structures are identified with logical structures, an appropriate cyclic principle guarantees that cyclic rules will apply so that large-scale parallelisms exist between surface syntactic structures…

An analysis of the French construction in which a passive is followed by a simple infinitive (e.g., "Paul a ete prie de sortir"), which language purists claim does not exist in French, suggests an account similar to the passivization of verbs without direct object. Three verb groups are considered: verbs of perception, opinion, and…

This paper discusses Role and Reference Grammar (RRG), which is a structuralist-formalist theory of grammar. RRG grew out of an attempt to answer two fundamental questions: (1) what would linguistic theory look like if it were based on the analysis of Lakhota, Tagalog, and Dyirbal, rather than on the analysis of English?; and (2) how can the…

This paper proposes an explanation for the limited possibilities of realized conjunctions in multitermed coordinations. It argues that conjunction "&" heads a fully articulated phrase (&P), which can iterate &P shells, similar to "V" in Larson's (1988) VP-shell hypothesis. This structure enables a single & to unify any number of conjuncts, and…

Analysis of Japanese numeral expressions provides evidence that their two semantically distinct functions, attributive and partitive, can be associated with distinct syntactic positions within the noun phrase (NP). The attributive numeral phrase occupies the position of a modifier and is a complement to N or N'. The quantifier (partitive) numeral…

The dependency approach to grammar, in which it is assumed that grammatical relations can be described in terms of a relation between two element types, a head and a dependent, is discussed in the context of Arabic. Operational criteria used for defining the notions of head and dependency are reviewed, and claims for the usefulness of recognizing…

The development of a new grammar of English for machine translation systems at Weidner Communications Corporation is described. Although the project began with the intention of simply modifying the grammar rules already in use in the translation system, the reorganization of the grammar was deemed necessary for providing a principled manner of…

Evaluates alternative methods of teaching "troublesome" Russian verbs in present and future tenses. Approaches to finding consistent and simple methods of explanation are discussed. Two techniques include memorizing the third person plural and infinitives, or memorizing the single form (the single-stem system). Problem verbs and their stems are…

Reviews concepts from discourse analysis and translates them into instructional techniques that can be used in the classroom to improve reading comprehension. (FL)

Examines a number of grammatical constraints on the use of comparative nego, nego sto and od, and on coordinate nego and ali, with a view to establishing rules that will cover most of the grammatical behavior of these frequent function words in present-day standard Serbo-Croatian. (20 references) (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)…

Explores concepts of formal language and automata theory underlying computational linguistics. A computational formalism is described known as a "logic grammar," with which computational systems process linguistic data, with examples in declarative and procedural semantics and definite clause grammars. (13 references) (CB)