Noun plural inflection in German-speaking individuals with Down syndrome
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.36505/ExLing-2021/12/0044/000517Keywords:
Down syndrome, morphology, plural inflection, developmental language disorderAbstract
The aim of the study was to investigate noun plural inflection in German-speaking individuals with Down syndrome (IDS) in comparison to a control group of typically developing (TD) children. Forty noun plurals with different German inflectional endings were elicited. Accuracy scores as well as error types were analysed. Group comparisons indicated that noun plural inflection is affected in the participants with Down syndrome. In contrast to the TD children, the dominant error type of the IDS were omissions, i.e. unmarked forms. This finding suggests that the observed deficit is not restricted to inflectional morphology per se, but also involves a violation of a prosodic constraint operating on the output of German noun plural inflection.
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