Chapter published in:
Three Streams of Generative Language Acquisition Research: Selected papers from the 7th Meeting of Generative Approaches to Language Acquisition – North America, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Edited by Tania Ionin and Matthew Rispoli
[Language Acquisition and Language Disorders 63] 2019
► pp. 59–82

Variability within varieties of English

Profiles of typicality and impairment

| Louisiana State University
In this article, I present findings from studies completed with children who speak nonmainstream dialects of English, including African American English as spoken in LA, MI, and the Gullah/Geechee Corridor of SC and Southern White English as spoken in rural LA by children with and without Cajun influence. Using these studies, I describe some of the ways in which typically developing child speakers of various nonmainstream dialects differ from each other and some of the ways in which nonmainstream English-speaking children with specific language impairment differ from their same dialect-speaking, typically developing peers. I conclude that profiles of typicality and impairment are not the same – the latter contributes a more restricted range of variation than the former.
Keywords: dialects, linguistic variation, typical development, child language impairment
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1The children
    • 1.2The data
  • 2.Variation between and within dialects: Profiles of typicality
    • 2.1Differences in the use of unique forms
    • 2.2Differences in rates of use
    • 2.3Differences in linguistic context effects
    • 2.4Differences in grammatical functions
  • 3.Profile of impairment
  • 4.Summary
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 15 April 2019
https://doi.org/10.1075/lald.63.04oet
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