Syntactic complexity in Spanish narratives: a developmental study.
Syntactic complexity in the movie retellings of 77 school-age Spanish-speaking children was examined using a structural constituent analysis. The results demonstrated developmental differences in the length of T-units, index of subordination, use of relative clauses, and prepositional phrases. There were also differences in the length of T-units, use of nominal clauses, and adverbial phrases across Spanish language groups. The analysis underscores the significance of subordination as a cohesive device and as an indicator of narrative proficiency.
Gutierrez-Clellen
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Department of Communicative Disorders, College of Health and Human Services, San Diego State University, CA 92182-0151.
Hofstetter
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D002663:Child Language; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006630:Hispanic or Latino; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D007804:Language Development; D007807:Language Tests; D008297:Male; D014705:Verbal Behavior