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The current study employed an eye-movement technique with an attempt to explore the reading patterns for the two types of Chinese relative clauses, subject-extracted relative clauses (SRCs) and object-extracted relative clauses (ORCs), by native speakers (L1), and Japanese learners (L2) of Chinese. The data were analyzed in terms of gaze duration, regression path duration, and regression rate on the two critical regions, head noun, and embedded verb. The results indicated that both the L1 and L2 participants spent less time on the head nouns in ORCs than in SRCs. Also, the L2 participants spent less time on the embedded verbs in ORCs than in SRCs and their regression rate for embedded verbs was generally lower in ORCs than in SRC. The findings showed that the participants experienced less processing difficulty in ORCs than SRCs. These results suggest an ORC preference in L1 and L2 speakers of Chinese, which provides evidence in support of linear distance hypothesis and implies that the syntactic nature of Chinese is at play in the RC processing.

Acceptability judgments have been an important tool in language research. By asking a native speaker whether a linguistic token is acceptable, linguists and psycholinguists can collect negative evidence and directly test predictions by linguistic and psycholinguistic theories, which provide important insight into the human language capacity. In this paper, we first give a brief overview of this method including: (1) the linking hypothesis for this method, (2) the controversy about the test, and (3) limitations of the current analysis of the results. Then, we propose a new way of analyzing the data: Signal Detection Theory. Signal Detection Theory has been used in many other psychological research areas such as recognition memory and clinical assessments. In this paper, using two examples, we show how Signal Detection Theory can be applied to judgment data. The benefits of this approach are that it can: (1) show how well participants can differentiate the acceptable sentences from unacceptable ones and (2) describe the participant’s bias in the judgment. We conclude with a discussion of remaining questions and future directions.

Robert (“Bob”) Zwanzig died on May 15 this year at the age of 86. He had been a member of the National Academy of Sciences since 1972. He is survived by Frances, his wife of 60 years, a daughter, Elizabeth Bennett, and a son, Carl. Frances writes that Bob “was a baker of bread and of made-from-scratch pizza, a maker of dry martinis and hearty soups, an ice dancer, and a walker along the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal.” We remember Bob as the theorist who inspired us, sometimes criticized us, and more than anyone else, explained the foundations of nonequilibrium statistical mechanics.

1. Three tetracarboxylate porphyrins, apart from coproporphyrin, were isolated from the faeces of patients with symptomatic cutaneous hepatic porphyria and of rats with porphyria caused by hexachlorobenzene poisoning. The porphyrins were not present in the urine of the porphyric rats or in the faeces of control rats. 2. Two of the porphyrins were identified as tris-(2-carboxyethyl)-carboxymethyl ethyl trimethyl porphin (isocoproporphyrin) and tris-(2-carboxyethyl)-carboxymethyl trimethyl porphin (de-ethyliso-coproporphyrin). 3. The third porphyrin, previously reported to be an analogue of coproporphyrin in which one propionate group is replaced by an α- or β-hydroxypropionate group, was shown to be tris-(2-carboxyethyl)-carboxymethyl-(1-hydroxyethyl)-trimethyl porphin (hydroxyisocoproporphyrin). 4. The order of β-substituents around the porphin ring could not be determined for any of the compounds. 5. Evidence for the existence of a fourth porphyrin, tris-(2-carboxyethyl)-carboxymethyl trimethyl vinyl porphin (dehydroisocoproporphyrin), a postulated precursor of the others, is described. 6. It is suggested that dehydroisocoproporphyrinogen is produced by decarboxylation–dehydrogenation of one of the propionate groups of pentacarboxylate porphyrinogen III.

The enzymes involved in the initial degradative steps of lysine metabolism, lysine–2-oxoglutarate reductase and saccharopine dehydrogenase, were studied and their activities in different mammals compared. Values obtained in human, rat, pig, dog, cat, ox and sheep liver indicated that in vitro, appreciable degradation of lysine to saccharopine (4–6nmol/min per mg of protein) occurred. The specific activity of saccharopine dehydrogenase in most species studied was higher than that of lysine–oxoglutarate reductase. The rate of production of glutamate from saccharopine in each animal species was investigated and related to the rate of production of α-aminoadipate. The rate of formation of lysine from saccharopine, catalysed by saccharopine oxidoreductase, was examined and correlated with the dietary intake of lysine in each species studied.