Developmental connections between verb inflection and subject-verb inversion

Abstract

This study investigates children’s receptive ability to distinguish finite from nonfinite verbs as well as inverted from uninverted questions. Child English speakers produce both types of non-adult constructions. Specifically, child English speakers with SLI are known to have problems with verb finiteness marking and question formation, but the two have not yet been tested together to determine whether there is a contingency between them. Our research aims to determine whether a theoretical connection posited between the two adult-like constructions is visible in the development of child English and whether a difference in comprehension of these grammatical constructs exists between children with specific language impairment (SLI) and their typically developing peers. Two tests were administered to each child in this study, the Nonfinite Verb Grammaticality Choice Task and the Subject-Auxiliary Inversion Grammaticality Choice Task (Pratt and Grinstead 2007). Each question on the tests consisted of two statements: the adult like form and the child-particular form. Children were asked to choose the statement which they thought was correct. One hundred six typically developing children between the ages of 3;1 and 5;11 participated in this study. The mean age of the 63 children who passed both tasks was 4;10. Advisors: Dr. John Grinstead and Dr. Robert Fox