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This paper questions the a priori assumption of the segment in phonology by considering the issues surrounding the relative timing of articulatory movements and its relationship with phonological structure. The specific focus of the paper is on pre- and postaspiration in Icelandic, with a question as to why the former is normally treated as segmental while the latter is not. An alternative analysis is offered which does not assume cross-parametric slicing into segments, which is declarative rather than derivational, and which is polysytemic as opposed to monosystemic. Timing is located in the phonetic implementation component of the phonology, which is language-specific rather than universal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The focus of this linguistic investigation is on the poetry of Edwin Thumboo, which has contributed much to the shaping and definition of Singapore's English language poetic canon. A systemic-functional approach is adopted for analysing several of Thumboo's poems, including “gods can die”, “David”, and “Conjunction”, examining the poet's technique, or, as in the poet's own words, “the chiseling of Language, the rearranging of language, the sound, the rhythm, the tautness, the layering”. Linguistic analysis of Edwin Thumboo's poetry reveals an imagery projected through the poet's technique, in combination with metaphorical allusions to science, theology, mythology, and even numerology. Each of his poems is a highly textured, grammatically intricate work of art with multiple layers of meaning and metaphor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article deals with the over-representation of syntactic knowledge in L2 learner data. In early L2 grammars, multimorphemic sequences which go well beyond learners’ grammatical competence are very common. Influential theories of the L2 initial state have failed to take proper account of this phenomenon, claiming the apparent presence of, e.g., finite verb forms, wh questions and clitics, as evidence for functional projections from the start of L2 acquisition. However, data from early learners show that these properties are not present outside chunks initially, and that early grammars consist of lexical projections and formulaic sequences, showing no evidence of functional categories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Complex noun phrases crosslinguistically contain meaningless elements whose sole function is to serve as linkers of predicates to their subjects—thus, Mandarin Chinese de links inverted AP predicates to their subjects as well as possessors, PPs, relative clauses, and noun-complement clauses (e.g., the claim that John was asleep). Taking a comparative analysis of French de and Thai t h îi as its point of departure, this paper argues for a maximally generalized account of the noun phrases in which linkers occur, in terms of DP-internal Predicate Inversion. This approach prompts an analysis of relative-clause constructions that recognizes relative clauses as predicates of DP-internal small clauses, combining the attractions of the traditional approach and the Vergnaud/Kayne raising approach by assigning relative clauses an internal structure similar to the traditional one while giving it the external distribution of a predicate by treating it as the predicate of a noun-phrase-internal small clause. For noun-complement clauses, the approach leads to a revitalization of Stowell's (1981) predication approach to the relationship between the head noun and the clause, the latter serving as the former's subject in a DP-contained small-clause structure. A uniform linker approach to French de, Thai t h îi, Mandarin Chinese de, Japanese no, and so on (a) emphasizes the pervasiveness of Predicate Inversion in the noun phrase, (b) confirms the role of linkers as purely functional aides to the inversion operation, (c) furthers our understanding of the structure and derivation of complex noun phrases, and (d) presents a particularly interesting window on microparametric variation in the syntax of noun phrases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most linguistic theories since have hypothesized that long-distance dependencies crossing multiple clauses are mediated by intermediate structures. This paper provides a new source of evidence for the existence of such intermediate structures: reading times during online sentence comprehension. The experiment presented here compares reading times for two structures involving the long-distance extraction of a wh-filler: (a) a structure in which a clause intervenes between the endpoints of the extraction, and (b) a structure in which a nominalization of the clause intervenes. The logic of the experiment relies on two hypotheses: first, that intermediate structures mediate the relationship between a wh-filler and its θ-role-assigning verb when a clause intervenes between them but not when a nominalization intervenes; and second, that reading times for a word increase as linear distance increases between the word and the position on which it is dependent in the partial structure for the input ( ; ). In combination, these hypotheses predict that reading times at the region in which the verb assigns a θ-role to the wh-filler will be faster in the clausal conditions than in the nominalized conditions, because in the clausal conditions intermediate structure mediate the wh-filler verb dependency and cause it to be more local. This prediction was confirmed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper defends three interconnected claims: (a) selection is the only licensing procedure available to UG, specifically, checking is an instance of selection; (b) selection obtains in the mutual c-command configuration; and (c) though a head does not mutually c-command its own specifier, it mutually c-commands the specifier of its complement. A head may therefore license the specifier of its complement (as well as its complement) but not its own specifier (it is not local enough). This effectively eliminates the spec-head configuration from the repertoire of syntactic configurations, in favor of a unified notion of locality strictly identifiable with mutual c-command, a symmetric configuration. The discussion shows that a theory that collapses these distinctions remains empirically discriminating. The resulting theory is therefore genuinely reductionist. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of academic language (also referred to as academic English) has developed substantially in the 30 years since Cummins introduced the distinction between basic interpersonal communication skills (BICS) and cognitive academic language proficiency (CALP). Cummins' (1979, 1981, 2000a) work explains why English language learners (ELs) may acquire basic conversational fluency in English quickly but require substantially longer to acquire academic language. The BICS/CALP framework has also influenced pedagogy, particularly by promoting highly contextualized teaching of academic content. More recent work drawing on linguistic approaches, including corpus linguistics and Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL), provides insights into the specific features of language used in school settings. Pedagogical approaches emphasizing explicit language instruction and plentiful opportunities for oral and written language practice show promise for assuring that ELs can develop academic language proficiency. Given the need to address the academic achievement of the growing population of ELs, it is important for teachers to expand their concept of academic language instruction to include these approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]