An investigation into the semantic-syntactic interface in typically developing children and children with grammatical specific language impairment
This thesis presents an initial investigation of the semantic-syntactic interface in a sub-group of children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI): the Grammatical (G)-SLI group. Previous research of this group has largely focused on their morpho-syntactic abilities and more recently on the morpho-phonological interface. In contrast, the semantic ability of children with SLI in general is an area that has received little investigation and the question remains as to whether their deficit extends to the semantic-syntactic interface. The thesis focuses on aspect. Understanding of lexical and grammatical aspect is investigated using grammatical judgement and sentence-picture matching tasks. The impact of aspect on passives, a grammatical construction that children with G-SLI have difficulty with is also investigated. The group of children with G-SLI who participated were aged between 11 and 16 and their performance was compared to 3 groups of typically developing children matched on either grammar (LAI, mean age 6) or vocabulary (LA2, LA3 mean ages 7 and 9 respectively) ability. The investigations revealed that children with G-SLI were impaired in their understanding of the past progressive. Their difficulty
Gallon, Nicholas Jane
An investigation into the semantic-syntactic interface in typically developing children and children with grammatical specific language impairment. This thesis presents an initial investigation of the semantic-syntactic interface in a sub-group of children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI): the Grammatical (G)-SLI group. Previous research of this group has largely focused on their morpho-syntactic abilities and more recently on the morpho-phonological interface. In contrast, the semantic ability of children with SLI in general is an area that has received little investigation and the question remains as to whether their deficit extends to the semantic-syntactic interface. The thesis focuses on aspect. Understanding of lexical and grammatical aspect is investigated using grammatical judgement and sentence-picture matching tasks. The impact of aspect on passives, a grammatical construction that children with G-SLI have difficulty with is also investigated. The group of children with G-SLI who participated were aged between 11 and 16 and their performance was compared to 3 groups of typically developing children matched on either grammar (LAI, mean age 6) or vocabulary (LA2, LA3 mean ages 7 and 9 respectively) ability. The investigations revealed that children with G-SLI were impaired in their understanding of the past progressive. Their difficulty
investigation semantic_syntactic interface typically develop child_child grammatical specific language impairment present initial investigation semantic_syntactic interface sub group child specific language impairment grammatical group previous group largely focus morpho_syntactic ability recently morpho phonological interface contrast semantic ability child general area_receive little investigation question remain whether deficit extend semantic_syntactic interface focus aspect lexical grammatical_aspect investigate use grammatical judgement sentence picture matching task impact aspect passive grammatical construction child difficulty also_investigate group child participate age performance compare group typically develop child match either grammar mean vocabulary mean respectively ability investigation reveal child impair past progressive difficulty