Complexity markers in morphosyntactic productions in French-speaking children with specific language impairment (SLI)

Abstract

The usage-based theory considers that the morphosyntactic productions of children with SLI are particularly dependent on input frequency. When producing complex syntax, the language of these children is, therefore, predicted to have a lower variability and to contain fewer infrequent morphosyntactic markers than that of younger children matched on morphosyntactic abilities. Using a spontaneous language task, the current study compared the complexity of the morphological and structural productions of 20 children with SLI and 20 language-matched peers (matched on both morphosyntactic comprehension and mean length of utterance). As expected, results showed that although basic structures were produced in the same way in both groups, several complex forms (i.e. tenses such as Imperfect, Future or Conditional and Conjunctions) were less frequent in the productions of children with SLI. Finally, we attempted to highlight complex linguistic forms that could be good clinical markers for these children.

• Complexity markers
• french
• morphosyntactic production
• specific language impairment

Acknowledgements

We thank all the children who participated in this study and their parents for their collaboration. We are grateful to Camille Masson and Laurence Liégeois for their assistance in data collection.

Declaration of interest

The authors report no conflict of interest. Support for this research was provided by the University of Liege (doctoral fellowship for fields not eligible for FRIA).