Peer reviewedERIC Number: EJ697057
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2005-Feb
Pages: 14
Abstractor: Author
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1092-4388
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
Knowledge of Constraints on Compounding in Children and Adolescents with Williams Syndrome
Zukowski, Andrea
Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, v48 n1 p79 Feb 2005
This study examines knowledge of a constraint on the form of synthetic noun-noun compounds in a group of 12 children and adolescents with Williams syndrome (WS; age 8-16 years). The constraint blocks regular plurals from appearing inside compounds (e.g., ferrets breeder) while allowing irregular plurals in the same environment (e.g., mice breeder). In an elicited production task, the WS group showed a strong asymmetry in rates of plurals inside compounds, allowing irregulars liberally but almost never allowing regulars. This demonstrates that people with WS are capable of acquiring and applying combinatorial knowledge that requires the suppression of productive morphological rules, contrary to some recent proposals. These results are compared with other studies of compounding, and the implications of these results for theories of the WS grammatical profile are discussed.
Descriptors: Adolescents, Language Impairments, Morphemes, Nouns, Comparative Analysis, Children, Grammar
American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, 10801 Rockville Pike, Rockville, MD 20852. Tel: 301-897-5700, ext. 4164; Fax: 301-897-7348.
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A


