| 27. | | 4 English DS (CA: 17 - 21 years)/4 TDC (CA: 5.11 - 7.10 years) | Picture Truth Value Judgement task | DS: difficulties comprehending reflexives, but not pronouns indicating a selective grammatical deficit in DS which is syntactic in nature. The opposite pattern from TDC. DS’s language: not merely delayed, but also deficient due to inability to establish the syntactic relation between the anaphor and its antecedent. Modules of the computational system, such as morphosyntax, are relatively more impaired than those associated with the general processing system, such as lexical knowledge or pragmatics. |
| 28. | | 6 Serbo-Croatian DS (mean CA: 23.3 years)/TDC (CA: 5 - 6.11 years) | Picture Truth Value Judgement task | No statistically significant differences between the two groups. Control participants performed at ceiling on all conditions, as well as participants with DS also performed well on a number of test conditions. They were able to answer both yes (match) and no (mismatch) questions appropriately. They also scored high on experimental match conditions with full forms of the pronouns and the reflexive and match conditions with clitic forms. DS differed significantly to those of the TD controls for name reflexive and for quantifier-reflexive, both mismatch conditions. DS: particular difficulties with the anaphor “sebe”. |
| 29. | | 4 English DS (CA: 17 and 21 years)/TDC in various groups from | Picture Truth Value Judgement task adapted from | DS: specific difficulties assigning appropriate interpretation to reflexives (Principle A of standard Binding Theory), as opposed to pronouns, constrained by Principle B. This pattern is the reverse of the well-known “Delay of Principle B” effect confirmed in typical acquisition. On conditions involving pronouns (NPM, NPX, QPM, QPX), the subjects performed at ceiling but their performance is strikingly different on conditions that involve reflexives. Specific syntactic deficit in the language of DS, related to the inability to establish a certain syntactic dependency. |
| 30. | | 4 English DS (CA: 17 - 21 years)/TDC in various groups from | Picture Truth Value Judgement task adapted from | The process of acquisition of Binding in DS qualitatively different compared to typical linguistic development. Specific syntactic deficit in DS, inability to establish a certain syntactic dependency (an anaphor and its antecedent). Performance at ceiling on conditions involving pronouns, but below chance on at least one (match or mismatch) condition with reflexives. DS: significantly worse performance on anaphors as opposed to pronouns, revealing a pattern opposite to the well-known “Delay of Principle B Effect”. |