PREDICATE ACQUISITION BY LANGUAGE DISORDERED CHILDERN

该项目统一了三个已建立的组织最近的活动 研究团队努力找出可能的延误 特定语言儿童的语义发展 精神错乱。新设计的语义分析软件将是 应用于现有的对话数据体。纵向 自发言语的样本收集自30个国家 语言障碍儿童和匹配的语言年龄控制 在过去的五年里。借助谓词编码 程序1.2，一个SALT衍生产品，全面的语义概要 将在每个采样点为每个孩子生成。这些 配置文件标识各种类型的 表达了状态和关系的概念。这两种产品的比较 谓词分布将指示内容 来自语言障碍儿童的语音样本 和/或与他们的同龄人不同。特别关注 将侧重于情态谓词和体验谓词 研究表明，语言障碍儿童使用这些术语 频率低于他们的语言或 精神年龄。如果这是真的，这一事实可能意味着(A) 有关语言学习的概念性资源可能会被 其他因素，以及(B)语言障碍儿童不及格 开发语言的力量来解决问题。两者都有 其影响将引发对教育的重大重新定向 编程。研究人员介绍了语言障碍儿童 有一个独特的机会来研究发展中的 语言与认知的其他方面之间的关系。 语义域为这些关系提供了最好的窗口。 通过将分析工具、数据和专业知识汇集在一起 成熟的研究人员，我们可以进行第一次大规模的， 这一人群中谓词习得的纵向研究 最低限度的努力。

This project unites the recent activities of three established research teams in an effort to identify possible delays in the semantic development of children with specific language disorders. Newly designed semantic analysis software will be applied to an existing body of conversational data. Longitudinal samples of spontaneous speech have been collected from thirty language disordered children and matched language-age controls over the last five years. With the aid of Predicate Coding Program 1.2, a SALT spinoff, comprehensive semantic profiles will be generated for each child at each sampling point. These profiles identify the relative frequency with which various types of states and relationships are expressed. Comparisons of these predicate distributions will indicate the ways in which the content of speech samples from the language disordered children does and/or does not resemble that of their peers. Particular attention will be focused on Modality and Experience predicates since prior studies suggest that language disordered children use these terms less often than would be expected for either their language or mental age. If true, this fact could imply (a) that the influence of conceptual resources on language learning may be overridden by other factors, and (b) that language disordered children are failing to exploit the power of language for problem solving. Both implications would invite significant redirection of educational programming. Language disordered children present researchers with a unique opportunity to investigate the developmental relationships between language and other aspects of cognition. Semantic domains provide the best window on these relationships. By drawing togethter the analysis tools, data, and expertise of established researchers, we can conduct the first large-scale, longitudinal study of predicate acquisition in this population with a minimum of effort.