Phonological constraints on the sentence productions of language-disordered children.
Effects of phonological and syntactic structure on the sentence productions of language-disordered school children (mean age = 6:2 years) were investigated. The syllabic complexity of target sentences as well as clause embedding significantly contributed to sentence inaccuracy (omission, substitution, addition, and transposition errors). Phonological complexity in lexical items disrupted syntactic performance in a quantitative fashion. Whereas the syntactic constructions determined the patterns of errors, added phonological complexity simply increased the errors within the patterns. The causal interrelationships between children's syntactic and phonological disorders are discussed in terms of a theory of general organizational deficit.
D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007806:Language Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D008037:Linguistics; D008297:Male; D010700:Phonetics