A defense of the passive voice against charges that it is wordy, obscure, and ineffective. (DD)

Examines research favoring the use of active voice over passive voice verbs and the influence of active voice on sentence length and position and emphasis. Discusses the implications of this rule on technical writing. (HTH)

Examines the problems the passive voice element creates for style in technical writing. (HTH)

Contends that the rule "do not split infinitives" is a proper subset of the rule "do not split verbs," and that both should be taught. (DD)

Outlines the basic elements and classroom applications of "word grammar," a form of sector (tagmemic) analysis to be used in standard English instruction. (RL)

A two-dimensional system used by speakers of Spanish to make imperative utterances is outlined. The system consists of the basic verb forms that make up the nuclei of such utterances and oblique marker usage, which consists for the most part of syntactic modification of base forms. (Author/HP)

This grammar handbook emphasizes formal written usage, offering clues to help with comprehension. The seven sections discuss: (1) "Nouns" (e.g., most nouns can follow "the," and possessives can show more than possession); (2) "Pronouns" (e.g., pronouns come in small groups, and some pronouns defy logic); (3) "Verbs" (e.g., some plural subjects…

Examined the extent to which cross-linguistic differences in sentence interpretation would generalize to complex sentences with an embedded clause. College students who were native speakers of English or Italian completed four experiments. Results indicated that cross-linguistic differences were maintained when students interpreted complex…

Subjects completed sentences of the form NP1 aux V NP2 because (but) Pro...(e.g., John may scold Bill because he...) with a reason or motive for the action described. A basic perceptual strategy was hypothesized to underlie the comprehension of these sentences which have a potentially ambiguous pronoun in the subject position of the subordinate…

What errors in English subject-to-verb agreement reveal about the syntactic nature of sentence subjects was investigated. Participants in 3 experiments included 104 undergraduates and 64 members of a university community. Results suggest the abstract syntactic relation of subject controls/mediates verb agreement, not notional properties and…

Comparison of undergraduate students' (N=42) processing of equal- and unequal-length sentences with passive and active voices and positive and negative forms revealed a significant active-passive main effect when sentences were of unequal length. An active-passive difference for positive, but not negative, sentences was also shown. (Author/CB)

Investigates three types of cues [semantic, syntactic (intensional), and adjacency] to subjects of verbs in English sentences. Finds that, when the adjacency strategy does not apply, even highly literate native speakers have great difficulty in correctly comprehending subject-verb correspondences. Discusses findings in context of the relationship…

Offers examples of appropriate and improper use of the passive voice in technical communications and gives suggestions for using these examples in technical writing classrooms. (RL)

In three experiments, readers were presented with garden-path sentences containing reciprocal verbs, and their eye movements were monitored. Results demonstrate that information from the reciprocal verb influenced the earliest stages of syntactic processing. (29 references) (Author/CK)

Studied "pre-ambiguity" plausibility information, information about verb argument structure frequencies, and "post-ambiguity" constraints in undergraduates. All three types of constraints were helpful in the resolution of ambiguities. Ambiguity resolution becomes more difficult as the competitor interpretations becomes stronger. Study items are…