The influence of frequency- and contextually-related factors on the use of regular noun plural -s by children with specific language impairment

Elgustus Jules Polite, Purdue University

Abstract

Although difficulties with tense and agreement are most frequently documented, some children with specific language impairment (SLI) also have difficulty with the use of regular noun plural –s. However, the factors that contribute to this difficulty have received relatively little investigative attention. In this study, potential frequency-related and contextual factors were explored as factors that may contribute to variable use of noun plural –s. In Study 1, percentages of use of regular noun plural –s were compared among three groups of children: 44 children with SLI (SLI), 40 typically developing children matched on chronological age (TD-A), and 44 younger, typically developing children with mean length of utterance (MLU) scores similar to those of the children in the SLI group (TD-Y). Study 2 included all children in Study 1 who showed inconsistent use of the regular noun plural –s inflection. In Study 2, frequency-related factors such as phonotactic probability of the noun stem and the noun stem + inflection, biphone frequency of the stem-final segment + inflection, word frequency, and neighborhood density were examined to determine their influence on the inconsistent use of regular noun plural –s by these children. Additionally, factors such as the use of regular noun plural –s in obligatory contexts preceded by demonstratives and quantifiers, allomorphs required for inflection, and the sentence position in which the context requiring the regular noun plural –s inflection occurs were also examined. The results of these primary analyses prompted supplementary analyses. We found that phonotactic probability, neighborhood density, and stem-final phonetic context (vowel, consonant, consonant cluster) appear to influence the production of regular noun plural –s by children who are inconsistent in the use of this morpheme. Current theories of SLI should be extended or altered in order to account for these results. The results from this research also serve to inform future research and current clinical practice with the population of children with SLI.

Degree

Ph.D.

Advisors

Leonard, Purdue University.

Subject Area

Linguistics|Speech therapy|Developmental psychology

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