Children with fragile X syndrome (FXS), the most common known inherited cause of intellectual disability, typically experience communication difficulties. Children with other intellectual disabilities such as Down syndrome also experience communication difficulties. Further, many boys with FXS (some estimates are as high as 35 percent) also are…

This study aims to describe in detail the linguistic skills of a large group of SLI participants. Particular attention is paid to the analysis of age-related effects on their linguistic performance and to whether a linguistic assessment of a narrative task can capture language impairments that might not be adequately pointed out by standardized…

We tested the hypothesis that syntactic and narrative comprehension of a natural sign language can serve as the linguistic basis for skilled reading. Thirty-one adults who were deaf from birth and used American Sign Language (ASL) were classified as skilled or less skilled readers using an eighth-grade criterion. Proficiency with ASL syntax, and…

English learners of French whose first language (L1) does not mark the perfective/imperfective distinction have shown verb semantic influence and an overall preference for perfective over imperfective in their use of second language (L2) tense-aspect markers. This study investigated whether learners whose L1 marks the perfective/imperfective…

This paper discusses the language contact situation between Algonquian languages and French in Canada. Michif, a French-Plains Cree mixed language, is used as a case study for linguistic results of language contact. The paper describes the phonological, morphological, and syntactic conflict sites between the grammars of Plains Cree and French, as…

This paper presents a quantitative analysis of the variable use of the subjunctive which constitutes a notable "fragile zone" in the spoken French of advanced L2 learners. A comparative approach is adopted to consider the relative impact of naturalistic and instructed L2 exposure in the case of our learner-participants who were Irish university…

Books can be a rich source of learning for children and adults alike. In the present study, the contribution of shared reading and parent literacy to a variety of child outcomes was tested. Child outcomes included measures of expressive vocabulary, morphological and syntax comprehension, and narrative ability (story grammar, cohesion, and language…

This paper discusses the development of an assessment to satisfy the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Language Proficiency Requirements. The Versant Aviation English Test utilizes speech recognition technology and a computerized testing platform, such that test administration and scoring are fully automated. Developed in…

Tutelo is a Siouan language that was once spoken in Virginia and the Carolinas. Before it died out, a few scholars collected enough data on the language to elicit the main features and characteristics of the language. This paper looks at the noun in Tutelo. Specific focus is on the shape of the root, the marking of gender and number, the…

Certain types of pronominal differentiation are functionally related to certain types of transformational rules; this theory leads to a concept of a functional component within which these aspects of grammar are complementary. Their complementarity is matched by an inverse relationship in functional values from one language to another. (CK)

Analyzes the circumstrances in which a German verb complex in a sentence can be separated by inserting various syntactic elements. Examples are provided. (Text is in German.) (DS)

An experiment is reported which was based on the use of judgments of perceived likelihood to study semantic constraints. Results of the experiment are discussed. (Author/RM)

Focuses on syntactic differences extending across two or more sensory processes, and finds that the referents of the vision modality are more flexible that those of other senses. (CK)

The grammatical subject of sentences in English is regularly but not invariably perceived as the sentence topic. Attempts to express this regularity as a rule of grammar are frustrated by the numerous cases in which there is no topic or some other referring expression is the topic. An alternative account is one in which sentence topic is inferred…