Case assignment in English-speaking children: a paired priming paradigm

Weil, Lisa Wisman; Leonard, Laurence B.

doi:10.1017/s0305000916000337

Cited by 8 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 42 publications

(65 reference statements)

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“…Compare, for example, You like dogs and Dogs like you . The existence of such forms in the input might invite the incorrect interpretation that other pronoun forms can be used for both subject and object (see Wisman Weil and Leonard for a recent example). In German, there is very little subject–object pronoun ambiguity, and object‐for‐subject pronoun errors are much less frequent than in English.…”

Section: Factor 2: Case Confusionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Five overarching factors central to grammatical learning and treatment in children with developmental language disorder

Leonard

Kueser

2019

Intl J Lang & Comm Disor

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Background During grammatical treatment of children with developmental language disorder (DLD), it is natural for therapists to focus on the grammatical details of the target language that give the children special difficulty. However, along with the language‐specific features of the target (e.g., for English, add –s to verbs in present tense, third‐person singular contexts), there are overarching factors that operate to render the children's learning task more, or less, challenging, depending on the particular target. Aims To identify five such factors that can play a role in the grammatical learning of children with DLD. We use English as our example language and provide supporting evidence from a variety of other languages. Main Contribution We show that the relative degree of English‐speaking children's difficulty with particular grammatical details can be affected by the extent to which these details involve: (1) bare stems; (2) opportunities for grammatical case confusion; (3) prosodic challenges; (4) grammatical and lexical aspect; and (5) deviations from canonical word order. Conclusions During treatment, therapists will want to consider not only the English‐specific features of grammatical targets but also how these more general factors can be taken into account to increase the children's success.

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Section: Factor 2: Case Confusionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Five overarching factors central to grammatical learning and treatment in children with developmental language disorder

Leonard

Kueser

2019

Intl J Lang & Comm Disor

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“…Pelham concluded that these data explained why children acquiring English produce pronoun case errors whereas children acquiring German tend not to. Wisman Weil and Leonard (2017) found support for Pelham’s (2011) hypothesis. When toddlers were primed by imitating sentences containing it and you as subjects and objects, they were more likely to subsequently produce pronoun case errors on he and she targets than when they were primed by imitating sentences containing phonetically distinct subject and object pronouns.…”

Section: The Pronoun Paradigmmentioning

confidence: 71%

“…The goal of this study was to determine whether an association existed between children’s first person and third person pronoun case errors. An association would suggest that children initially approach case as a system through a general paradigm that cuts across person (and number) (Pelham, 2011; Pinker, 1984; Rispoli, 1994; Wisman Weil & Leonard, 2017). Pronoun case errors represent difficulty in establishing the place of the nominative vs. accusative distinction within this general paradigm.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…An open question in the field of psycholinguistics is whether case errors propagate, originating in one pronoun and expanding to other pronouns. Propagation of this type is plausible if children approach the acquisition of case with the expectation of a general paradigm (Pelham, 2011; Pinker, 1984; Rispoli, 1994; Wisman Weil & Leonard, 2017). Alternatively, children might acquire overt case distinctions in a piecemeal, item-based fashion, learning each pronoun’s forms with no apparent carry-over from one pronoun to another.…”

Section: A Unified System or Piecemeal Acquisitionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Case marking uniformity in developmental pronoun errors

Fitzgerald

Rispoli²,

Hadley

2017

First Language

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The purpose of this study was to determine if children acquire grammatical case as a unified system or in a piecemeal fashion. In English language acquisition, many children make developmental errors in marking case on subject position pronouns (e.g., Me do it, Him like it). It is unknown whether children who produce pronoun case errors with first person pronouns also produce errors with third person pronouns. This finding would be expected if case were acquired uniformly across person through building a paradigm for an abstract case feature. Spontaneous pronoun case errors were collected from language samples of 43 typically developing toddlers at 21, 24, 27, 30, 33, and 36 months of age. A chi-square test was used to determine whether children were more likely to make both first and third person errors, indicating an association. The uniformity of the case marking system was further investigated by asking whether pronoun case errors in first and third person occurred at the same time using a Wilcoxon signed-ranks test. Most children treated case uniformly across person, producing both first and third person pronoun case errors or producing no case errors at all, resulting in a significant association. Additionally, errors were not significantly different in timing. The results of this investigation are compatible with the notion that children systematically extend case marking in a unified paradigm. Pronoun case is not acquired separately for each grammatical person in a piecemeal fashion.

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