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ERIC Number: EJ822623
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2009-Jan
Pages: 43
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0169-0965
EISSN: N/A
Elicited Production of Relative Clauses in Children with Williams Syndrome
Zukowski, Andrea
Language and Cognitive Processes, v24 n1 p1-43 Jan 2009
Relative clauses have been implicated alternately as a strength and a weakness in the language of people with Williams Syndrome (WS). To clarify the facts, an elicited production test was administered to 10 people with WS (age 10-16 years), 10 typically developing children (age 4-7 years), and 12 typically developing adults. Nearly every WS participant successfully produced both subject gap (SG) and object gap (OG) relative clauses, and produced relative clauses in both right-branching and centre-embedded positions. However, OG relative clauses were produced less frequently than SG relative clauses, and trials targeting OG relative clauses often elicited contextually inappropriate responses. Critically, these two patterns were also observed in typically developing children, though at attenuated levels. It is argued that by late childhood people with WS know the structure and the meaning of relative clauses, but qualitatively normal processing factors cause unusually severe interference in some subprocesses of sentence production. (Contains 10 tables and 5 figures.)
Psychology Press. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 325 Chestnut Street Suite 800, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Fax: 215-625-2940; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals
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