The count-mass distinction in typically developing and grammatically specifically language impaired children: new evidence on the role of syntax and semantics

Journal of Communication Disorders
Karen Froud, H K van der Lely

Abstract

By the age of three, typically developing children can draw conceptual distinctions between "kinds of individual" and "kinds of stuff" on the basis of syntactic structures. They differ from adults only in the extent to which syntactic knowledge can be over-ridden by semantic properties of the referent. However, the relative roles of syntax and semantics in determining the nature of the count-mass distinction in language acquisition are still not well-understood. This paper contributes to this debate by studying novel noun acquisition in a subgroup of children, aged 8-15 years, with specific language impairment, whose core deficits are limited to within the grammatical system (G-SLI), We conducted two experiments: a production task and a word extension task. Such children might be expected to rely to a greater extent than their age-matched peers on semantic properties of referents in order to assign noun interpretations, since by hypothesis they have greater difficulty in accessing and utilizing syntactic category distinctions than typically developing children. In the production task, the Children with G-SLI demonstrated rigid over-application of a pluralization rule which masked even basic knowledge of semantic information abo...Continue Reading

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Citations

Dec 11, 2013·Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences·Kate Nation
Nov 7, 2009·Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics·Zaneta Mok, Peter F Kipka
May 19, 2010·Journal of Learning Disabilities·Heather K J van der Lely, Chloë R Marshall
Jun 10, 2010·Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research : JSLHR·Pui Fong Kan, Jennifer Windsor
Aug 6, 2011·Journal of Psycholinguistic Research·William D RaymondSamantha J McDonnel
Dec 20, 2019·Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools·Douglas B PetersenMatthew E Foster

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