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Syntax
“The Speech Act” Where speaker
meets listener through grammar!
Syntax• Topics
– 1. Definition– 2. Cognitive & Language Development– 3. Syntactic Development– 4. Telegraphic (Two-word taxonomy)– 5. Sentence types– 6. Morphology– 7. Assessment– 8. Tx
What is the genesis for syntax in child development• Theory:
– 1. Cognitive growth (means/ends causality) DEMANDS longer utterances
– 2. Modeling of parents= ACL– 3. More accurate information = “Speech Act
Theory”– 4. Decontextualizes an utterance– 5. Critical for Narration Development
Progression• “Ball”• “Momma ball,” “ ball there,” “ ball
go”• “ball under here”• Throw ball to me• Don’t throw the ball• I threw the ball and now it is gone• Since you took a turn, it is my turn!
Syntactic Development• Preverbal
– Babbling– Echolalia– Vocables, Phonetically Consistent Forms
• Holophrase• Telegraphic: Semantic/Syntactic Taxonomy• Phrases
– NP: Art + Noun, Art. + Adj.+ Noun– VP: Verb+Modifier (tense) + PP (Intrans), or NP (Trans)– Prepositional Phrase: Prep. + Art.+ Noun
• Sentences– Simple– Compound – Complex
HOLOPHRASES• Definition: ONE-word representing a
thought• Cognitively
– Based on cognitive growth in Object Permanence– Beginning of world knowledge
• Linguistically– Meaning based on CONTEXT– Beginning of Semantics
• Typically receptive first• EXPRESSIVELY: First WORD- 10-18 months
– Typically a substantive– Phase lasts until around 50 words and then to
TELEGRAPHIC
TELEGRAPHIC• Definition: Generation of a two-word
utterance– EXPRESSIVE
• Usually begins in normally developing children with lexicon of 50 words– Typically 18-28 months
• Multiple meanings BASED ON CONTEXT– Use a taxonomy: Bloom
Two-word Semantic-Syntactic Taxonomy by Bloom,
Brown, Schlesinger
• modifier+ head big daddy• negative + X no juice• X + locative doggie bed• agent + action baby eat• action + object eat cookie• agent + object mommy doll• recurrence + X more ------
PHRASES• Definition- generation of a 3 or more word
construction whose construction can comprise a sentence
• Part of Chomsky’s Transformational Generative Language theory– Finite set of rules generating an infinite set of utterances
TypesNoun NP—Art +Adj + nounVerb
VP=(aux) +Main Verb +NP= TRANSITIVE VERBVP= (aux) + Main Verb + PP=INTRANSITIVE VERB
Prepositional PP= Preposition +art+noun
SENTENCES
Cognitive Growth in the ability to Problem Solve,Need to express those complex relationships
3 Types of Sentences• Simple
• Compound
• Complex
4 Types of SIMPLE Sentences• Simple• Questions• Negative• Passive Voice
4 Simple Sentences Types
• 1. Simple (Declarative, Imperatives)–Cognitive: stating propositions
–Pragmatic Intentions of Informing, commenting
– Linguistic: S-NP+VP–S-NP +VP
»NP must have a noun» NP-art + noun» NP-art +adj +noun» NP-art + adj + conj + adj + noun» NP-Pronoun
–VP»VP-(aux)+Main Verb + NP
(transitive verb)»VP (aux)+Main Verb + PP
(intransitive verb)
4 Types of Simple Sentence Constructions
– 2. Questions•Yes/No
–Pragmatic Intent: Affirmation/negation
–Syntactic Patterns:»1. Rising intonation, no transformation
»2. Rising intonation with transformation
»3. Statement + tag
Questions, continued•‘Wh’ Questions
– Intent: information»types: lower order (factual) higher order
(Analysis, synthesis, evaluative–Pragmatic: requesting
information, requesting action–Syntactic: ‘wh” + verb+NP or PP
»“Who is making the noise?»What is in the closet?
4 Types of Simple Sentences 3. Negation• Intent: Reject, Protest, Non-existence, Deny• Syntactic Construction Progression
– A. “no” without embedding: “No I go bed”– B. with embedding: “I no go bed”– C. with T-do: carries tense (present, past,
future)•not contracted: I do not like broccoli•contracted: I didn’t like carrots•tense is indicated with the auxiliary verb
– I will not go (future tense)– I haven’t studied (past tense)
4 Types of Simples4. Passive Voice• Intent: changes topic/comment relationship• Last construction to develop usually by 5.6yrs• Usually assessed on receptive language tests• Construct:
– usually indicated by the word ‘by,’ ‘from’– examples:
•Active Voice: The train hits the car•Passive Voice: The car was hit by the train•Active Voice: The boy hit the ball•Passive Voice: The ball was hit by the boy.
Passive Voice continued• 3 Types of Constructions
– 1. reversible • either noun could be the actor or object• example: The girl was chased by the boy
– 2. instrumental nonreversible• nouns cannot be reversed• example: The window was broken by the ball
» (the ball was broken by the window)– 3. agentive nonreversible
• nouns cannot be reversed• example: The window was broken by the boy
» (the boy was broken by the window)
Types of sentences2. Compound• Definition: Two clauses• Clause is a group of words that contains both a
subject and a predicate. – Simple and compound sentences are clauses
• Conjoining terms: and– Composed of 2 clauses joined by a compound
“The girl played basketball and the boy went shopping.”
3. Complex Sentences• Definition: Sentence consisting of a
main clause and a clause or a phrase– Clause: group of words containing both a
subject and predicate– Phrase: Group of related words that
does not include a subject and a predicate, and is used as a noun substitute or as a noun or verb modifier
• Types: Conjoined and Embedded
Types of Sentences• composed of either
1. main clause and a clause“Since we are going out, you need to wear a suit.”
2. independent clause and phrase» unembedded
To see that fish was quite an experience.”» embedded
“The child, who swam the event, is my niece.”
Complex sentences: Conjoined• Clausal, that’s why they are called
Conjoined• Type Vocabulary
– Causal because, so, therefore– Conditional if– Disjunctive but, or, although– Temporal when, before, after, then
Complex Constructions: Clausal Embedding• Embedding may occur at the end of
the sentence or in the center• Embedding Types
– Relative Pronoun• I’m going with someone (whom) you like.
– Object Noun Phrase Compliments• I think (that) I like to study
– Parallel Clauses• He gave me the present (that) I didn’t like• (both clauses share the same subject or
object)– Non Parallel Clauses
• He likes the girl living next store
Complex Constructions: Phrasal Embedding
• Types– Prepositional
• He swam in the lake– Participle (verb derived word ending in
ing,ed,t,en, and some irregular forms)• Setting sun, lost cause, gilted sword
– Gerund (verb functioning as a noun• Skiing is fun.
– Infinitive Phrase• He wanted to open his present
MORPHOLOGICAL ACQUISITION
Morphology Acquisition
• Addresses both FREE and BOUND morphemes
• Morpheme review (p. 22)– Free– Bound– Derivational
Inflectional– prefixes suffixes s,
ing, ed, er
Brown’s 14 Grammatical Morphemes• 1. Articles, “a, the”• 2. Nouns: plurals, possessives• 3. Prepositions: “in, on”• 4. Verb tensing for all tenses
except future– present progressive– present– irregular past– past– ‘to be’
Brown’s 14 Grammatical Morphemes
• Contain both Free and Bound Morphemes• Greatest acquisition of Morphemes is
between 4-7 years• Selection Criteria
– 1. Phonetically minimal forms– 2. Receive only light vocal emphasis– 3. Limited number of constructions– 4. Multiple phonologic forms– 5 slowly developing– analyzed only particular grammatical construcitons
14 Grammatical Morphemes Organized by Class
• 14 Grammatical Morphemes by Class– 1. Articles: the (definite), a
(indefinite)– 2. Nouns: plurals, possessives– 3. Prepositions: in, on– 4. Verbs
Brown’s 14 Grammatical Morphemes, continued
– 4. Verbs•present progressive: MV+ing•3rd person regular (present): hits forms:
s,z,Iz•3rd person irregular (present): does,
has• irregular past: ran, came, fell• regular past: decided•Verb “to be”• 1 as copula (linking verb ‘to be’)
– uncontracted: He is a good boy– contracted: He’s a good boy
• 2. As auxiliary (helping verb)– uncontracted: She is going to the game– contracted: She’s going home
Order of Development forBrown’s 14 Grammatical Devlopment
• Linked to Brown’s 5 Stages of Development• Stage MLU Age (approx)
Characteristics• Stage I 1.0-2.0 12-26 m• Stage II 2.0-2.5 27-30 m.
Morphologic Dev.• Stage III 2.5-3.0 31-34 m. Sentence
Form Dev.• Stage IV 3.0-3.75 35-40 m Embedding • Stage V 3.75-4.5 41-46m Joining of
Clauses• Stage V+ 4.5 +
Sequence of Development for the14
Grammatical Morphemes – Morpheme Age in Months• Present Progressive 19-28 • In,on 27-30 • Regular Plural 24-33• Irregular Past 25-46• Possessives26-40 Stage II• Uncontracted Copula 27-39• Articles 28-46• Regular Past 26-48• Regular 3rd Person (s) 26-46• Irregular 3rd person 28-50• Uncontractible Auxiliary 29-48• Contractable Copula 29-49• Contractible Auxiliary 30-50 Stage III
ANALYSIS Of SYNTAX in a Language Sample
Analysis of Syntactic Length of Utterance in a Language Sample
• 1. MLU computes by morphemes• 2. MLR computes words• 3. T-units computes sentences
ONLY• 4. C-units computes any phrase,
clause, or sentence
Mean Length of Utterance• Positive correlation between Age and
MLU• A fairly reliable tool until the age of 3
or an MLU of 4• from ages 1.6 through 5 years, MLU
may increase approximately 1.2 morphemes /year
• MLU is only a GROSS developmental index
• provides NO INFORMATION on specific structural complexity
Mean Length of Utterance• Purpose: Estimate of child’s syntactic
development compared to chronological age– Up to an MLU of 4.0 increase in MLU correspond to
increases in utterance COMPLEXITY • Assessement:Taken in a Language Sample or
PBA, – Need at least 50 utterances to be considered
minimally REPRESENTATIVE. A 100 utterances is better!
• Formula:• MLU=Total Number of Morphemes• Total Number of Utterances
• Formula
Rules for Counting MLU, Brown
Count as 1 morpheme– 1. Compound words– 2. Irregular past (did)– 3. Diminutives
(doggie)– 4. Indefinite Pronouns
(anyone, someone)– 5. Catenatives (gonna)
COUNT ONCERepetitions =ONE TIME
DO NOT COUNT– Fillers (um, huh)– Stuttering
• Count as SEPARATE Morphemes– 1. Auxiliaries (is,
have, will, can, must, would)
– 2. Inflections• Possessives• Third person singular• Regular past• Present progressive
– 3. Negative contractions (can’t)
Practice Corpus: Grammatical Morphemes and MLU1. My child likes to read 2. The boys are studying in the library.3. What time did they leave? 4. When did the girls take the small dog?5. The baby was sleeping in the crib.6. Dogs chased the scared cat up the tree.7. We studied all night and it helped my grade.8. Their car’s in the garage.9. Tom hops on one foot.10. The time to order pizza is not at eight in the
morning!
Other Syntactic Measures• MLR— word count
– not sensitive to morphological transformations– Looks length of utterance by a numerical count
• T-units– Analysis of SENTENCES ONLY
• C-units (communicative units)– Analysis of phrases, clauses and sentences– Not telegraphic
ASSESSMENT
Syntactic Assessment• 1. Formal Test Formats
– 1.1.Receptive= Auditory Processing/decoding• Point to the picture that shows: The horse
was ridden by the boy– 1. 2. Expressive=encoding
• cloze, generation using a key word, imitation, combining
• 2. Language Samples– Analysis through 1. MLU, C-Unit, T-Unit,
MLR 2. Construction Types Semantic/Syntactic, Sentence Constructions
Formal Assessment• Typically part of a more complete language assessment
– Receptive (processing) Expressive (production)
– semantics/syntax semantics/syntax
– Methods:• Cloze (sentence completion=morphology• Key word=sentence generation• Imitation• Sentence Linking (Combining) and/or Delinking
Descriptive Assessment• Use the Language Sample• Analyzed by
– 1. Length of utterance• MLU morphemes• MLR=words• T-units-complete sentences, one independent main
clause with any dependent clauses• C-units-phrases and sentences
– 2. Sentence types• Phrases• Sentences
– 4 simple sentences– compound– complex
Intervention
Intervention ideas• Syntactic Development is based on Pragmatic
RANGE OF COMMUNICAITON INTENTIONS– Therefore, must be meaningful!!!!
• Strategies of modeling specific constructions, expansion of child’s utterance, imitation
• Linking utterances• Use of kinesis, blocks, or some type of
VISUAL PROP to teach patterning• Use of Social Stories• More IDEAS:
Websites
Syntactic Summary• Syntactic Development is viewed as a
merging of cognition and language• More complete expression of the Speech
Act in communication• Assumes continued semantic acquisition • Syntactic acquisition is:
– Morphology acquisition – Brown’s 14 Grammatical Morphemes
– Syntactic Construction Expansion• Expanding from Telegraphic
to Phrases to Sentences
– Sentence Types• 4 simple sentence types• Compound• Complex
End of Syntax Discussion