This is the second volume in the Vancouver studies in Cognitive Science series, and also the second in a series of conferences hosted by the Cognitive Science Programme at Simon Fraser University devoted to the exploration of issues in cognition and the nature of mental representation. The volumes overall theme is the relationship between the contents of grammatical formalisms and their real-time realizations in machine or biological systems. The range of topics includes issues of learnability, implementary and computational issues, parameter setting, and neurolinguistic issues. The core subdisciplines of linguistics - syntax, semantics, morphology, and phonology - are all represented. The contributions are on the leading edge of research in these fields.