Chapter published in:
Typical and Impaired Processing in Morphosyntax
Edited by Vincent Torrens
[Language Acquisition and Language Disorders 64] 2020
► pp. 279–302

The comprehension of wh-questions and passives in German children and adolescents with Down syndrome

| TU Dortmund University
| University of Cologne
Children with Down syndrome (DS) have difficulty comprehending complex syntactic structures. Ring and Clahsen (2005) attribute these problems to a specific syntactic deficit that affects A(=argument) movement. We investigated the comprehension of passive sentences (A-movement) and wh-questions (wh-movement) in 22 German children and adolescents with DS compared to mental-age matched typically developing children. The results suggest that an impairment in the syntactic development affecting also wh-movement structures occurs in a substantial proportion of children with DS and exceeds their general cognitive disabilities. The error patterns of both tests reveal problems with non-canonical clauses and the use of the Agent-first strategy as in early stages of typical acquisition. Moreover, limitations in phonological working memory might contribute to syntactic processing problems in individuals with DS.
Keywords: Down syndrome, developmental disorders, language impairment, language comprehension, wh-questions, passive sentences, sentence-comprehension deficits
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction: Sentence comprehension problems in individuals with Down syndrome
    • 1.1Aim of paper and research questions
    • 1.2Structure and acquisition of German wh-questions and passives
      • Structure of passives and wh-questions: A-movement and A′-movement
      • Acquisition of questions and passives in German
  • 2.Method
    • 2.1Participants
    • 2.2Measures
      • 2.2.1Standardized passive comprehension test (TSVK)
      • 2.2.2Comprehension of wh-questions
      • 2.2.3Background measures: General grammar comprehension and phonological working memory
    • 2.3Data analysis
  • 3.Results
    • 3.1Results of the passive test (TSVK)
    • 3.2.Results of the who-question comprehension task
    • 3.3Results of background measures: TROG-D and NWR
    • 3.4Comparison of tests and correlational analyses
  • 4.Discussion
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 21 October 2020
https://doi.org/10.1075/lald.64.12wim
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