Davies, Lee;
(2001)
The nature of specific language impairment : Optionality and principle conflict.
Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).
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Abstract
This thesis focuses upon two related goals. The first is the development of an explanatory account of Specific Language Impairment (SLI) that can effectively capture the variety and complexity of the children's grammatical deficit. The second is to embed this account within a restrictive theoretical framework. Taking as a starting point the broad characterisation of the children's deficit, developed by Heather van der Lely in her RDDR (Representational Deficit for Dependant Relations) research program, I refine and extend her position by proposing a number of principled generalisations upon which a theoretical explanation can be based. These generalisations embody three specific claims; that SLI is a disorder that affects both productive and receptive language, that SLI children's errors are mainly errors of omission and not commission, and that even the children's ungrammatical production is representative of their grammar. I motivate these claims and consider how they might inform the development of a theoretical account of the disorder. My theoretical proposals are based on the concept of Principle Conflict. I propose that the SLI child's grammar contains two principles which conflict in a way that makes them each select different optimal derivations from a given lexical array. As a result of this conflict, the child optionally produces a range of constructions which are ungrammatical for the Normal Development grammar. My proposals make a number of empirical predictions for the children's speech. I present findings from a range of experimental studies which test many of my predictions for the domain of syntactic Negation. Negation is examined because it is a relatively new area of research and provides a range of interesting diagnostics for the particular syntactic phenomena which is my interest.
| Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Qualification: | Ph.D |
| Title: | The nature of specific language impairment : Optionality and principle conflict |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Thesis digitised by ProQuest. |
| Keywords: | Language, literature and linguistics; Psychology; Specifical Language Impairment |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10101599 |
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