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Lookup NU author(s): Dr Nick Riches, Laura Jackson
This is the authors' accepted manuscript of an article that has been published in its final definitive form by Wiley-Blackwell, 2018.
For re-use rights please refer to the publisher's terms and conditions.
Syntactic abilities vary across individuals. Weak syntax is typically ascribed to limited competence (knowledge) or poor performance (processing). However, with many questioning this dichotomy, alternative explanations should be considered. Arguments related to language exposure are insufficient because language-impaired children often have good input. An alternative account, the learning hypothesis, assumes that individual variation in syntactic abilities reflects variation in construction learning ability. To evaluate this claim, we tested construction learning in 49 five-year-old English-speaking children, targeting two complex constructions rarely attested in child-directed speech, though with no control of prior exposure. Results revealed that there was substantial variation in the children’s construction learning ability, which was strongly associated with their performance on static standardized language assessments (Test of Reception of Grammar, Renfrew Action Picture Task), and that nonadjacent open slots were problematic. While our findings supported the learning hypothesis, further research should determine causes of individual variation in syntactic ability.
Author(s): Riches NG, Jackson L
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Language Learning
Year: 2018
Volume: 68
Issue: 4
Pages: 973-1000
Print publication date: 01/12/2018
Online publication date: 26/07/2018
Acceptance date: 09/04/2018
Date deposited: 24/07/2018
ISSN (print): 0023-8333
ISSN (electronic): 1467-9922
Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/lang.12307
DOI: 10.1111/lang.12307
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