Three empirical studies were conducted to investigate the hypothesis that the "easy to see" construction (such as in the sentence "children are hard to understand") is acquired at a younger age than the 7-9 year range reported by previous studies (Cambon and Sinclair, 1974; Chomsky, 1969; 1972; Cromer, 1970; Kessel, 1970).…

This language textbook is designed for beginning students of Tagalog, the principal language spoken on the island of Luzon in the Philippines. The introduction discusses the history of Tagalog and certain features of the language. An explanation of the text is given, along with notes for the teacher. The text itself is divided into nine sections:…

A study was conducted to determine if verbs were learned as easily as other words by primary school children. One hundred eight kindergarten children were divided into high, medium, and low I.Q. ranges and each range group was further divided--one group for each of three testing methods at each intelligence level. A list of words including 25…

Papers that address implications of linguistic theory for applied linguistics are presented. In "Some Semantic Properties of Some Conjunctions," W. Abraham is concerned with the function of "but" and its translation equivalents in German and other languages. In "Is It Possible and Necessary to Write Text Grammars?," T. P. Krzeszowski examines the…

A variety of reference aids are included in this supplement to a course in English as a second language for nursing aides. Maps of the imaginary geographic locations used in the course are provided. The bulk of the volume presents charts, lists, and illustrations designed to reinforce knowledge of basic vocabulary. Topics covered include numbers,…

THIS BRIEF OUTLINE OF HINDI PHONOLOGY AND GRAMMAR IS INTENDED FOR FIRST AND SECOND YEAR STUDENTS OF HINDI WHO HAVE SOME PREVIOUS KNOWLEDGE OF THE ORAL AND WRITTEN LANGUAGE BUT WHO MAY HAVE HAD NO PREVIOUS TRAINING IN LINGUISTIC TERMINOLOGY. THE AUTHORS HAVE THEREFORE EMPHASIZED SIMPLICITY AND READABILITY RATHER THAN EXHAUSTIVENESS OR ORIGINALITY…

In the past, linguistic descriptions of the relationships common to passive sentences have not been universally applicable. Junction grammar, a type of generative grammar, is a model that may provide a means of describing universal passive relationships. Junction grammar differs from transformational grammar in that its rules (1) claim other…

When teaching English as a second language to speakers of Punjabi, it is useful for the teacher to have some knowledge of the students' native language. This paper analyzes the differences in word order between English and Punjabi. The five basic sentence patterns in English are contrasted with the equivalent sentence patterns in Punjabi.…

This study proposes that avoidance of a structure by a second language learner can only be claimed for instances where it can be demonstrated that the learner "knows" the avoided language form and that native speakers are expected to use a particular form in that context. Research is reviewed, particularly a study by J. Schachter (1974) in which…

By age two, a child begins to form complex sentences by joining two or more sentences or by embedding one sentence into another. Formation of conjoined structures is a simpler process and emerges earlier than that of embedding structures. This paper attempts to answer the following questions: (1) Do children produce or understand embedding…

This is a summary of a report investigating the way verb forms are treated in four audiovisual or audiolingual methods (textbooks) for the teaching of introductory English as a second language. The methods under investigation are: (1) "Methode Audio-visuelle d'Anglais, 1," Filipovic; (2) "My Friend Tony--Pratique Audio-Orale des Structures, "…

This report presents a contrastive analysis of the phonological and grammatical systems of English and Polish. The analysis is intended as a resource in teaching Polish to speakers of English. Consequently, areas of special difficulty for the English-speaking learner are stressed: the phonology of segmental phonemes, the morphology of nouns, noun…

This is a comparative analysis of the Japanese and American languages and cultures. The following are discussed: verbs, kinship terms, category terms, apologies and thanks, honorifics and postpositional particles, and levels of usage. A final section relates conclusions about linguistic patterns to culture patterns. (AM)

Morphological and syntactical considerations of problems of interference which arise between the mother tongue and the target language are developed in this paper written in English and in French. Linguistically oriented, the article focuses on the identification of different linguistic elements which compose a syntagmatic form. A detailed…

This contrastive grammar based on modern linguistic theory considers noun and verb phrases as the primary morphological and syntactical structure of language. A section on the noun phrase examines: (1) types of noun phrase constructions; (2) gender and number; (3) elements, expansion, and substitutes of the noun phrase. The material on the verb…