The existence of variability, i.e., when multiple surface forms correspond to a single underlying representation, is a significant problem for many formal theories of phonology, which are often treated as strictly deterministic. Many theorists simply regard the different surface forms as free variants and use optional rules to formalize the variation (see Chomsky & Halle 1968). Others argue tha...

The present study investigated the contribution of lexico-semantic associations to impairments in establishing reference in schizophrenia. We examined event-related potentials as schizophrenia patients and healthy, demographically matched controls read five-sentence scenarios. Sentence 4 introduced a noun that referred back to three possible referents introduced in Sentences 1-3. These referent...

The invisible hands of peer reviewers play a determining role in the eventual fate of submissions to international English-medium journals. This study builds on the assumption that non-native researchers and prospective academic authors may find the whole strive for publication, and more specifically, the tough review process, less threatening if they are aware of journal reviewers’ expectation...

Experiments were carried out to determine if variations in adult native speaker performance arise from variations in working memory capacity (Just & Carpenter, 1992) or variations in procedural grammatical competence (Ericsson & Kintsch, 1995). Three groups of 18-year-old native speakers of English were tested on comprehension and recall of English Complex NP constructions. Two groups were ‘low...

The Grammar Translation Method and the Communicative Approach have both played important roles in grammar teaching. Which is better, the Grammar Translation Method or the Communicative Approach? This paper aims to compare the controllability and feasibility of these two approaches and find out which one is more suitable for grammar teaching in Taiwan. Two classes were selected and taught by the...

Formal languages theory is useful for the study of natural language. In particular, it is of interest to study the adequacy of the grammatical formalisms to express syntactic phenomena present in natural language. First, it helps to draw hypothesis about the nature and complexity of the speaker-hearer linguistic competence, a fundamental question in linguistics and other cognitive sciences. Mor...

The article is devoted to the problems of foreign language education in linguistic universities, namely promoting students’ competence, which has been most urgent mastering as a means communication. research prompts standards progress grammatical competence. In current study, we make hypothesis that, contrast traditional teaching approach, communicative approach supposed be more effective gramm...

This thesis presents an exhaustive research about ongoing language variation and change in the Japanese voice system. Through the analysis I identify the roles of internal and external factors in human linguistic competence that govern the language variation and change, and I construct a model of grammar that inherently includes the language variation and change. This work aims at the formal th...

We are often required to interpret discordant emotional signals. Whilst equivalent cognitive paradigms cause noticeable conflict via their behavioural and psychophysiological effects, the same may not necessarily be true for discordant emotion. The skin conductance (SCR) and heart rate (HR) of participants were measured during a classic Stroop task and one in which the emotions conveyed by lexi...