The Leading-Edge: The Significance of Sentence Disruptions in the Development of Grammar.
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| Title: | The Leading-Edge: The Significance of Sentence Disruptions in the Development of Grammar. |
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| Authors: | Rispoli, Matthew, Hadley, Pamela |
| Source: | Journal of Speech, Language & Hearing Research. Oct2001, Vol. 44 Issue 5, p1131-1143. 13p. 2 Diagrams, 3 Graphs. |
| Subject Terms: | *Sentences (Grammar), *Children's language, Grammaticality (Linguistics) |
| Abstract: | This research explored the relationship between sentence disruptions and the length and complexity of sentences spoken by children developing grammar. The study was cross-sectional in design and used samples of naturalistic, conversational interaction between 26 typically developing children (ages 2;6 to 4;0) and a primary caregiver. The active, declarative sentences produced by these children were coded for the presence of disruption, length in morphemes and words, and clausal complexity. The results showed that, for the majority of the children, disrupted sentences tended to be longer and more complex than fluent sentences. The magnitude of the differences in length and complexity was positively correlated with the children's grammatical development, as measured by the Index of Productive Syntax. It was also found that differences between the average complexity of disrupted versus fluent sentences increased with grammatical development even when sentence length was held constant. As grammatical development proceeded, disrupted sentences were more apt to be sentences on the "leading-edge" of the child's production capacity. Although these more advanced grammatical structures are part of the child's grammatical competence, the child cannot produce these sentences without an increased risk of processing difficulty. The results are congruent with proposals concerning the incremental and procedural nature of adult sentence production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
| Copyright of Journal of Speech, Language & Hearing Research is the property of American Speech-Language-Hearing Association and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.) | |
| Database: | Education Research Complete |
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| Abstract: | This research explored the relationship between sentence disruptions and the length and complexity of sentences spoken by children developing grammar. The study was cross-sectional in design and used samples of naturalistic, conversational interaction between 26 typically developing children (ages 2;6 to 4;0) and a primary caregiver. The active, declarative sentences produced by these children were coded for the presence of disruption, length in morphemes and words, and clausal complexity. The results showed that, for the majority of the children, disrupted sentences tended to be longer and more complex than fluent sentences. The magnitude of the differences in length and complexity was positively correlated with the children's grammatical development, as measured by the Index of Productive Syntax. It was also found that differences between the average complexity of disrupted versus fluent sentences increased with grammatical development even when sentence length was held constant. As grammatical development proceeded, disrupted sentences were more apt to be sentences on the "leading-edge" of the child's production capacity. Although these more advanced grammatical structures are part of the child's grammatical competence, the child cannot produce these sentences without an increased risk of processing difficulty. The results are congruent with proposals concerning the incremental and procedural nature of adult sentence production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
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| ISSN: | 10924388 |
| DOI: | 10.1044/1092-4388(2001/089) |
