I ran across the following in ScienceDaily today. It's the kind of research result for which I'd really, really want to see multiple followup studies. The researchers found that a proportion of their (adult) test subjects couldn't understand passive sentences; I can't help suspecting that the journalist hyped the results in some way or there are other factors involved. Population variation in comprehension of particular constructions is something I think is highly likely (absolute phrases, anyone?), but.... the passive? That's always struck me as part of the basic toolkit. 

At any rate, I thought it might be of interest to the list, even if I want to take it with a bucket of salt. -- Bill Spruiell

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/07/100706082156.htm




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