A contract deliverable on the NIE Communication Skills Project, this report consists of three separate documents describing the instructional implications of the analytic and empirical work carried out for the "Classroom Instruction in Reading Comprehension" part of the project: (1) Guidelines for Phrasal Segmentation; (2) Parsing Tasks…

Semantic noun classes in Emai, an Edoid language of Nigeria, are examined with respect to a process of Reference Point Marking (RPM) in order to explore the relationship between discourse and lexical semantics. Across pre- and post-verbal positions subcategorized by verbs like "rere" ("to be far"), these classes are shown to…

It is proposed that LF-movement in in-situ questions is not adequate to express the scope distinctions basic to the semantic interpretations of the direct and indirect question dichotomy in Marathi and Kashmiri, because this question type is more constrained in these languages than in languages like Chinese and Japanese. This theory is illustrated…

A discussion of Italian comparatives of inequality examines the use of "che" and "di" in introducing the comparison. It begins by looking at and discounting the semantic explanation for the different structures and then outlines the comparative rules for use of "che" and "di." It examines regular and…

A discussion of constraints on ellipsis after auxiliaries in English focuses on a particular analytic problem concerning nonfinite verb phrases using "be", which has a historical dimension. A solution involving the morphological claim about the copula and its incorporation of tense-distinctions is proposed and discussed in the context of…

An unusual construction in Shina grammar is examined, particularly as it has been observed in the language form spoken in the Skardu region of Pakistan. The construction occurs in the use of the dative case with certain verbs. The patterns of occurrence and the origins of this phenomenon are analyzed through examples from Shina. (MSE)

The position this paper assumes views vocabulary not as single words but as phrases, sentences, and sometimes entire segments of discourse that act as single words. This view of vocabulary would be helpful in: (1) bringing the vocabulary aspect of instruction in English as a second language (ESL) closer to current research in language performance,…

Six papers resulting from the fieldwork projects of members of the Summer Institute of Linguistics program at the University of North Dakota include: "A Relational Grammar Approach to Kera Syntax" (Janet K. Camburn), a syntactic study of an Afroasiatic language; "Clitic Doubling and M-Chains in Piraha" (Dan Everett), examining…

THIS GRAMMAR OF THE UZBEK LANGUAGES, THE MOST IMPORTANT IN THE SOUTHEASTERN GROUP OF TURKIC LANGUAGES, IS BASED ON THE EDUCATED DIALECT OF TASHKENT IN UZBEKISTAN, USSR. UZBEK IS SPOKEN TODAY BY APPROXIMATELY SEVEN MILLION PEOPLE IN UZBEKISTAN AND ADJOINING REPUBLICS OF SOVIET CENTRAL ASIA, AND IN UZBEK COMMUNITIES SCATTERED THROUGHOUT THE MIDDLE…

THE PAPERS IN THIS VOLUME--CATEGORIZED AS EITHER (1) AUTOMATIC ANALYSES OF NATURAL LANGUAGES, (2) STATISTIC AND SEMANTIC ANALYSES OF LINGUISTIC DATA, OR (3) ALGEBRAIC THEORIES OF LANGUAGES--ARE THE COLLECTIVE PRODUCT OF THE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON COMPUTATIONAL LINGUISTICS HELD AT GRENOBLE, FRANCE, AUGUST 23-25, 1967. TOPICS RANGE FROM…

This paper proposes a set of hypotheses on the nature of interrogration as a possible language universal. Examples and phrase structure rules and diagrams are given. Examining Tamazight and English, genetically unrelated languages with almost no contact, the author distinguishes two types of interrogation: (1) general, querying acceptability to…

Recent work in word-order typology has demonstrated that the dominant order of verbs and objects (or complements) correlates well with the general ordering tendencies of languages. The work on German reported in this paper suggests, however, that certain traits, such as the order of adverbials, are influenced not only by general ordering…

A possible application of generative-transformational (phrase-structure) grammar to the teaching of English composition at the college freshman level is described in this dissertation, which presents a potential textbook for a course on language and its relationship to culture. Topics discussed include traditional grammar, the bases of…

This paper argues that the hypothesis that all languages have a definitization process is empirically refutable, and that use of the terminology "definite" and "indefinite" is justified in that it reflects intuitions of grammarians and linguists. The following statements are tested against evidence from samples of different languages: (1) all noun…

Syntactic differences between languages are the focus of attention in this approach to contrastive study of grammatical categories. The categories of the first language are listed in a "translation-paradigm" opposite the possible categories of the target language after translation of the corpus. Three examples which contrast the clause, verbal…