The reply, when it finally came, was ________ the negative.

Empirical studies show that the process of SLA is a process of constructing and modifying rules of communication.

Research findings have shown that language processing centers are situated in a single area of the left hemisphere.

From the sociolinguistic perspective, a speech variety is no more than a dialectal variety of a language.

The division of English into Old English, Middle English, and Modern English is nonconventional and not arbitrary.

Searle's classification of illocutionary acts is based on the classification of performative verbs.

According to the "principles-and-parameters" theory, "principles" refer to highly abstract properties of grammar which are applied to language in general and which generate phrases and at the same time restrain the power of Move a, while "parameters" allow general principles to operate in certain restricted ways, according to which particular grammars of natural languages vary.

Well-arranged sentences are considered grammatical sentences that are formed following a set of syntactic rules.

A compound is the combination of only two words.

In classifying the English consonants and vowels, the same criteria can be applied.