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Relatively easy relatives

Children with syntactic SLI avoid intervention
  • Naama Friedmann , Maya Yachini and Ronit Szterman
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Structures, Strategies and Beyond
This chapter is in the book Structures, Strategies and Beyond

Abstract

We tested whether the relativized relatives approach, which suggests that typically-developing children encounter difficulties with movement structures in which one lexically-restricted NP intervenes in the movement of another lexically-restricted NP, also applies to syntactic SLI (SySLI). We assessed the production of subject- and object-relatives in 175 Hebrew-speaking children and adolescents with SySLI and 87 controls. The results indicated that the participants with SySLI avoided intervention, significantly more than the control group, by omitting the relative head or the embedded NP, or substituting them with a non-lexically restricted NP. Two patterns of SySLI emerged: one subgroup could produce subject relatives but was sensitive to intervention, and one subgroup could not produce any relative, possibly due to a tree-construction deficit.

Abstract

We tested whether the relativized relatives approach, which suggests that typically-developing children encounter difficulties with movement structures in which one lexically-restricted NP intervenes in the movement of another lexically-restricted NP, also applies to syntactic SLI (SySLI). We assessed the production of subject- and object-relatives in 175 Hebrew-speaking children and adolescents with SySLI and 87 controls. The results indicated that the participants with SySLI avoided intervention, significantly more than the control group, by omitting the relative head or the embedded NP, or substituting them with a non-lexically restricted NP. Two patterns of SySLI emerged: one subgroup could produce subject relatives but was sensitive to intervention, and one subgroup could not produce any relative, possibly due to a tree-construction deficit.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. List of contributors vii
  4. Preface ix
  5. Introduction xi
  6. PART I. The Architecture of the Computational Component
  7. Problems of projection 3
  8. Notes on labeling and subject positions 17
  9. On a PP/DP asymmetry in extraction 47
  10. Augmentative, pejorative, diminutive and endearing heads in the extended nominal projection 67
  11. A note on parallels between agreement and intervention 83
  12. Locality effects in Italian verbal morphology 97
  13. PART II. The Realization of Structure Relative to Discourse and Referential Dependencies: Focus, the vP periphery, and pronominal reference
  14. Be careful how you use the left periphery 135
  15. Exhaustivity operators and fronted focus in Italian 163
  16. Some notes on clefting and fronting 181
  17. A case of focal adverb preposing in French 209
  18. Transferring strategies and the nature of transfer 237
  19. Resolving pronominal anaphora in real-time 257
  20. PART III. Complex clauses in linguistic theory and acquisition: The role of intervention
  21. On the comprehension and production of passive sentences and relative clauses by Italian university students with dyslexia 279
  22. Relatively easy relatives 303
  23. Intervention effects in the spontaneous production of relative clauses in (a)typical language development of French children and adolescents 321
  24. Minimality effects in children’s passives 343
  25. Subject intervention in free relatives 369
  26. Relative clauses in Cimbrian 393
  27. Index 417
https://doi.org/10.1075/la.223.14fri

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. List of contributors vii
  4. Preface ix
  5. Introduction xi
  6. PART I. The Architecture of the Computational Component
  7. Problems of projection 3
  8. Notes on labeling and subject positions 17
  9. On a PP/DP asymmetry in extraction 47
  10. Augmentative, pejorative, diminutive and endearing heads in the extended nominal projection 67
  11. A note on parallels between agreement and intervention 83
  12. Locality effects in Italian verbal morphology 97
  13. PART II. The Realization of Structure Relative to Discourse and Referential Dependencies: Focus, the vP periphery, and pronominal reference
  14. Be careful how you use the left periphery 135
  15. Exhaustivity operators and fronted focus in Italian 163
  16. Some notes on clefting and fronting 181
  17. A case of focal adverb preposing in French 209
  18. Transferring strategies and the nature of transfer 237
  19. Resolving pronominal anaphora in real-time 257
  20. PART III. Complex clauses in linguistic theory and acquisition: The role of intervention
  21. On the comprehension and production of passive sentences and relative clauses by Italian university students with dyslexia 279
  22. Relatively easy relatives 303
  23. Intervention effects in the spontaneous production of relative clauses in (a)typical language development of French children and adolescents 321
  24. Minimality effects in children’s passives 343
  25. Subject intervention in free relatives 369
  26. Relative clauses in Cimbrian 393
  27. Index 417
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