Syntactic abilities in Williams Syndrome: How intact is ‘intact’?

Authors

  • Victoria Joffe Department of Language and Communication Science, City University, UK Author
  • Spyridoula Varlokosta Department of Mediterranean Studies, University of the Aegean, Greece Author

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.36505/ExLing-2006/01/0033/000033

Abstract

The present paper investigates the syntactic abilities of a group of individuals with Williams Syndrome to explore the debates surrounding the dissociation between language and cognition as well as possible dissociations within the language module in this population. Experimental linguistic measures that assess interpretation of passives, pronouns and reflexives as well as elicitation and comprehension of wh-questions were employed. Overall results for the WS group reveal little evidence of the reported spared linguistic abilities in this population thus challenging the idea of a relatively intact language system in WS.

 

References

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Joffe, V. and Varlokosta, S. under review. Language abilities in Williams Syndrome: exploring comprehension, production and repetition skills. Advances in Speech-Language Pathology.

Karmiloff-Smith, A., Grant, J., Berthoud, I., Davis, M., Howlin, P. and Udwin, O. 1997. Language and Williams Syndrome: how intact is ‘intact’? Child Development 68, 274-290.

Mervis, C.B., Robinson, B., Rowe, M., Becerra, A.M. and Klein-Tasman, B.P. 2004. Relations between language and cognition in Williams syndrome. In Bartke, S. and Siegmüller, J. (eds.) 2004, Williams Syndrome Across Languages, 63-92. Amsterdam/Philadelphia, John Benjamins Publishing.

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Published

01-01-2006

How to Cite

Syntactic abilities in Williams Syndrome: How intact is ‘intact’?. (2006). Linguistic Proceedings Series, 1(1), 157-160. https://doi.org/10.36505/ExLing-2006/01/0033/000033

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