KUKU

KU ScholarWorks

  • myKU
  • Email
  • Enroll & Pay
  • KU Directory
    • Login
    View Item 
    •   KU ScholarWorks
    • Dissertations and Theses
    • Theses
    • View Item
    •   KU ScholarWorks
    • Dissertations and Theses
    • Theses
    • View Item
    JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.

    Past tense and past participle verb use in young children with and without Specific Language Impairment

    Thumbnail
    View/Open
    Echelbarger_ku_0099M_12964_DATA_1.pdf (1.051Mb)
    Issue Date
    2013-08-31
    Author
    Echelbarger, Margaret
    Publisher
    University of Kansas
    Format
    74 pages
    Type
    Thesis
    Degree Level
    M.A.
    Discipline
    Child Language
    Rights
    This item is protected by copyright and unless otherwise specified the copyright of this thesis/dissertation is held by the author.
    Metadata
    Show full item record
    Abstract
    Finiteness marking is an area of weakness in specific language impairment (SLI) and two hypotheses attempt to account for this difficulty. The Extended Optional Infinitive (EOI) account proposes that SLI children have difficulties with the morphosyntactic properties of verbs. The surface account proposes that SLI children have difficulties with the surface properties of morphophonology. In English, the regular past participle provides an interesting test case for these hypotheses - it is not marked for finiteness, yet is homophonous with the regular past tense. Thus, children's use of regular past participles offers a window to explore further the source of the weakness in regular past tense marking. Previous studies yield inconclusive outcomes for regular forms and do not explicitly compare irregular forms. This study aimed to address the inconsistency in the literature by comparing regular past tense and regular past participle accuracy longitudinally, and explicitly comparing irregular past tense and irregular past participle accuracy. Participants included 65 SLI children (M = 5;5), 59 age-equivalent (AE) controls (M = 5;6), and 32 language-equivalent (LE) controls (M = 3;3). Two spontaneous language samples were collected approximately one year apart. At Time 1, SLI children were less accurate on the regular past participle than both AE and LE controls, but did not differ at Time 2. At Times 1 and 2, SLI children did not differ from AE controls on the irregular past participle. At Time 1, SLI children were more accurate on the regular past participle than the regular past tense, but did not differ at Time 2. Contrastingly, SLI children were more accurate on the irregular past participle than the irregular past tense at Times 1 and 2. As predicted by the EOI account, the past tense is more difficult than the past participle for SLI children irrespective of form. For SLI children, the past participle is easier than the past tense, with the irregular past participle conferring a greater advantage than the regular past participle. In general, the results are consistent with previous reports on homophonous forms and highlight the importance of age at time of assessment when evaluating group differences.
    URI
    http://hdl.handle.net/1808/12206
    Collections
    • Linguistics Dissertations and Theses [95]
    • Theses [3828]

    Items in KU ScholarWorks are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.


    We want to hear from you! Please share your stories about how Open Access to this item benefits YOU.


    Contact KU ScholarWorks
    785-864-8983
    KU Libraries
    1425 Jayhawk Blvd
    Lawrence, KS 66045
    785-864-8983

    KU Libraries
    1425 Jayhawk Blvd
    Lawrence, KS 66045
    Image Credits
     

     

    Browse

    All of KU ScholarWorksCommunities & CollectionsThis Collection

    My Account

    LoginRegister

    Statistics

    View Usage Statistics

    Contact KU ScholarWorks
    785-864-8983
    KU Libraries
    1425 Jayhawk Blvd
    Lawrence, KS 66045
    785-864-8983

    KU Libraries
    1425 Jayhawk Blvd
    Lawrence, KS 66045
    Image Credits
     

     

    The University of Kansas
      Contact KU ScholarWorks
    Lawrence, KS | Maps
     
    • Academics
    • Admission
    • Alumni
    • Athletics
    • Campuses
    • Giving
    • Jobs

    The University of Kansas prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, ethnicity, religion, sex, national origin, age, ancestry, disability, status as a veteran, sexual orientation, marital status, parental status, gender identity, gender expression and genetic information in the University’s programs and activities. The following person has been designated to handle inquiries regarding the non-discrimination policies: Director of the Office of Institutional Opportunity and Access, IOA@ku.edu, 1246 W. Campus Road, Room 153A, Lawrence, KS, 66045, (785)864-6414, 711 TTY.

     Contact KU
    Lawrence, KS | Maps