Syntax

“The Speech Act” Where speaker

meets listener through grammar!

Syntax

• Topics– 1. Definition– 2. Cognitive & Language Development– 3. Syntactic Development– 4. Telegraphic (Two-word taxonomy)– 5. Sentence types– 6. Morphology– 7. Assessment– 8. Tx

What is the genesis for syntax in child development• Theory:

– 1. Cognitive growth (means/ends causality) DEMANDS longer utterances

– 2. Modeling of parents= ACL– 3. More accurate information = “Speech Act

Theory”– 4. Decontextualizes an utterance– 5. Critical for Narration Development

Progression

• “Ball”• “Momma ball,” “ ball there,” “ ball

go”• “ball under here”• Throw ball to me• Don’t throw the ball• I threw the ball and now it is gone• Since you took a turn, it is my turn!

Syntactic Development• Preverbal

– Babbling– Echolalia– Vocables, Phonetically Consistent Forms

• Holophrase• Telegraphic: Semantic/Syntactic Taxonomy

• Phrases

– NP: Art + Noun, Art. + Adj.+ Noun– VP: Verb+Modifier (tense) + PP (Intrans), or NP

(Trans)

– Prepositional Phrase: Prep. + Art.+ Noun• Sentences

– Simple– Compound – Complex

HOLOPHRASES• Definition: ONE-word representing a

thought• Cognitively

– Based on cognitive growth in Object Permanence– Beginning of world knowledge

• Linguistically– Meaning based on CONTEXT– Beginning of Semantics

• Typically receptive first• EXPRESSIVELY: First WORD- 10-18 months

– Typically a substantive– Phase lasts until around 50 words and then to

TELEGRAPHIC

TELEGRAPHIC

• Definition: Generation of a two-word utterance– EXPRESSIVE

• Usually begins in normally developing children with lexicon of 50 words– Typically 18-28 months

• Multiple meanings BASED ON CONTEXT– Use a taxonomy: Bloom

Two-word Semantic-Syntactic Taxonomy by Bloom,

Brown, Schlesinger

• modifier+ head big daddy• negative + X no juice• X + locative doggie bed• agent + action baby eat• action + object eat cookie• agent + object mommy

doll• recurrence + X more ------

PHRASES• Definition- generation of a 3 or more word

construction whose construction can comprise a sentence

• Part of Chomsky’s Transformational Generative Language theory

– Finite set of rules generating an infinite set of utterances

TypesNoun NP—Art +Adj + nounVerb

VP=(aux) +Main Verb +NP= TRANSITIVE VERBVP= (aux) + Main Verb + PP=INTRANSITIVE VERB

Prepositional PP= Preposition +art+noun

SENTENCES

Cognitive Growth in the ability to Problem Solve,Need to express those complex relationships

3 Types of Sentences

• Simple

• Compound

• Complex

4 Types of SIMPLE Sentences• Simple• Questions• Negative• Passive Voice

4 Simple Sentences Types

• 1. Simple (Declarative, Imperatives)–Cognitive: stating propositions

–Pragmatic Intentions of Informing, commenting

– Linguistic: S-NP+VP–S-NP +VP

»NP must have a noun» NP-art + noun» NP-art +adj +noun» NP-art + adj + conj + adj +

noun» NP-Pronoun

–VP»VP-(aux)+Main Verb + NP

(transitive verb)»VP (aux)+Main Verb + PP

(intransitive verb)

4 Types of Simple Sentence Constructions

– 2. Questions•Yes/No

–Pragmatic Intent: Affirmation/negation

–Syntactic Patterns:»1. Rising intonation, no transformation

»2. Rising intonation with transformation

»3. Statement + tag

Questions, continued

•‘Wh’ Questions– Intent: information

»types: lower order (factual) higher order

(Analysis, synthesis, evaluative–Pragmatic: requesting information,

requesting action–Syntactic: ‘wh” + verb+NP or PP

»“Who is making the noise?»What is in the closet?

4 Types of Simple Sentences 3. Negation• Intent: Reject, Protest, Non-existence, Deny• Syntactic Construction Progression

– A. “no” without embedding: “No I go bed”– B. with embedding: “I no go bed”– C. with T-do: carries tense (present, past,

future)•not contracted: I do not like broccoli•contracted: I didn’t like carrots•tense is indicated with the auxiliary verb

– I will not go (future tense)– I haven’t studied (past tense)

4 Types of Simples

4. Passive Voice• Intent: changes topic/comment relationship• Last construction to develop usually by

5.6yrs• Usually assessed on receptive language tests• Construct:

– usually indicated by the word ‘by,’ ‘from’– examples:

•Active Voice: The train hits the car•Passive Voice: The car was hit by the train•Active Voice: The boy hit the ball•Passive Voice: The ball was hit by the boy.

Passive Voice continued• 3 Types of Constructions

– 1. reversible • either noun could be the actor or object• example: The girl was chased by the boy

– 2. instrumental nonreversible• nouns cannot be reversed• example: The window was broken by the

ball» (the ball was broken by the window)

– 3. agentive nonreversible• nouns cannot be reversed• example: The window was broken by the

boy» (the boy was broken by the window)

Types of sentences

2. Compound• Definition: Two clauses• Clause is a group of words that contains both

a subject and a predicate. – Simple and compound sentences are clauses

• Conjoining terms: and– Composed of 2 clauses joined by a compound

“The girl played basketball and the boy went shopping.”

3. Complex Sentences

• Definition: Sentence consisting of a main clause and a clause or a phrase– Clause: group of words containing both a

subject and predicate– Phrase: Group of related words that does

not include a subject and a predicate, and is used as a noun substitute or as a noun or verb modifier

• Types: Conjoined and Embedded

Types of Sentences• composed of either

1. main clause and a clause“Since we are going out, you

need to wear a suit.”

2. independent clause and phrase

» unembeddedTo see that fish was quite

an experience.”» embedded

“The child, who swam the event, is my niece.”

Complex sentences: Conjoined

• Clausal, that’s why they are called Conjoined

• Type Vocabulary– Causal because, so, therefore– Conditional if– Disjunctive but, or, although– Temporal when, before, after, then

Complex Constructions: Clausal Embedding• Embedding may occur at the end of

the sentence or in the center• Embedding Types

– Relative Pronoun• I’m going with someone (whom) you like.

– Object Noun Phrase Compliments• I think (that) I like to study

– Parallel Clauses• He gave me the present (that) I didn’t like• (both clauses share the same subject or

object)

– Non Parallel Clauses• He likes the girl living next store

Complex Constructions: Phrasal Embedding

• Types– Prepositional

• He swam in the lake

– Participle (verb derived word ending in ing,ed,t,en, and some irregular forms)• Setting sun, lost cause, gilted sword

– Gerund (verb functioning as a noun• Skiing is fun.

– Infinitive Phrase• He wanted to open his present

MORPHOLOGICAL ACQUISITION

Morphology Acquisition

• Addresses both FREE and BOUND morphemes

• Morpheme review (p. 22)– Free– Bound– Derivational

Inflectional– prefixes suffixes s,

ing, ed, er

Brown’s 14 Grammatical Morphemes

• 1. Articles, “a, the”• 2. Nouns: plurals, possessives• 3. Prepositions: “in, on”• 4. Verb tensing for all tenses

except future– present progressive– present– irregular past– past– ‘to be’

Brown’s 14 Grammatical Morphemes

• Contain both Free and Bound Morphemes

• Greatest acquisition of Morphemes is between 4-7 years

• Selection Criteria– 1. Phonetically minimal forms– 2. Receive only light vocal emphasis– 3. Limited number of constructions– 4. Multiple phonologic forms– 5 slowly developing– analyzed only particular grammatical construcitons

14 Grammatical Morphemes Organized by Class

• 14 Grammatical Morphemes by Class– 1. Articles: the (definite), a

(indefinite)– 2. Nouns: plurals, possessives– 3. Prepositions: in, on– 4. Verbs

Brown’s 14 Grammatical Morphemes, continued

– 4. Verbs•present progressive: MV+ing•3rd person regular (present): hits

forms: s,z,Iz•3rd person irregular (present): does,

has• irregular past: ran, came, fell• regular past: decided•Verb “to be”• 1 as copula (linking verb ‘to be’)

– uncontracted: He is a good boy– contracted: He’s a good boy

• 2. As auxiliary (helping verb)– uncontracted: She is going to the game– contracted: She’s going home

Order of Development forBrown’s 14 Grammatical Devlopment

• Linked to Brown’s 5 Stages of Development• Stage MLU Age (approx)

Characteristics• Stage I 1.0-2.0 12-26 m• Stage II 2.0-2.5 27-30 m.

Morphologic Dev.• Stage III 2.5-3.0 31-34 m. Sentence

Form Dev.• Stage IV 3.0-3.75 35-40 m Embedding • Stage V 3.75-4.5 41-46m Joining of

Clauses• Stage V+ 4.5 +

Sequence of Development for the14

Grammatical Morphemes – Morpheme Age in

Months• Present Progressive 19-28 • In,on 27-30

• Regular Plural 24-33• Irregular Past 25-46• Possessives 26-40 Stage II• Uncontracted Copula 27-39• Articles 28-46• Regular Past 26-48• Regular 3rd Person (s) 26-46• Irregular 3rd person 28-50• Uncontractible Auxiliary 29-48• Contractable Copula 29-49• Contractible Auxiliary 30-50 Stage III

ANALYSIS Of SYNTAX in a Language Sample

Analysis of Syntactic Length of Utterance in a Language Sample

• 1. MLU computes by morphemes• 2. MLR computes words• 3. T-units computes sentences

ONLY• 4. C-units computes any phrase,

clause, or sentence

Mean Length of Utterance• Positive correlation between Age

and MLU• A fairly reliable tool until the age of

3 or an MLU of 4• from ages 1.6 through 5 years, MLU

may increase approximately 1.2 morphemes /year

• MLU is only a GROSS developmental index

• provides NO INFORMATION on specific structural complexity

Mean Length of Utterance

• Purpose: Estimate of child’s syntactic development compared to chronological age– Up to an MLU of 4.0 increase in MLU correspond to

increases in utterance COMPLEXITY • Assessement:Taken in a Language Sample or

PBA, – Need at least 50 utterances to be considered

minimally REPRESENTATIVE. A 100 utterances is better!

• Formula:• MLU=Total Number of Morphemes• Total Number of Utterances

• Formula

Rules for Counting MLU, Brown

Count as 1 morpheme– 1. Compound words– 2. Irregular past (did)– 3. Diminutives

(doggie)– 4. Indefinite Pronouns

(anyone, someone)– 5. Catenatives

(gonna)

COUNT ONCERepetitions =ONE TIME

DO NOT COUNT– Fillers (um, huh)– Stuttering

• Count as SEPARATE Morphemes– 1. Auxiliaries (is,

have, will, can, must, would)

– 2. Inflections• Possessives• Third person singular• Regular past• Present progressive

– 3. Negative contractions (can’t)

Practice Corpus: Grammatical Morphemes and MLU1. My child likes to read 2. The boys are studying in the library.3. What time did they leave? 4. When did the girls take the small dog?5. The baby was sleeping in the crib.6. Dogs chased the scared cat up the tree.7. We studied all night and it helped my grade.8. Their car’s in the garage.9. Tom hops on one foot.10. The time to order pizza is not at eight in the

morning!

Other Syntactic Measures

• MLR— word count– not sensitive to morphological transformations– Looks length of utterance by a numerical

count

• T-units– Analysis of SENTENCES ONLY

• C-units (communicative units)– Analysis of phrases, clauses and sentences– Not telegraphic

ASSESSMENT

Syntactic Assessment• 1. Formal Test Formats

– 1.1.Receptive= Auditory Processing/decoding• Point to the picture that shows: The horse

was ridden by the boy

– 1. 2. Expressive=encoding• cloze, generation using a key word,

imitation, combining

• 2. Language Samples– Analysis through 1. MLU, C-Unit, T-Unit,

MLR 2. Construction Types

Semantic/Syntactic, Sentence

Constructions

Formal Assessment

• Typically part of a more complete language assessment

– Receptive (processing) Expressive (production)

– semantics/syntax semantics/syntax

– Methods:• Cloze (sentence completion=morphology• Key word=sentence generation• Imitation• Sentence Linking (Combining) and/or Delinking

Descriptive Assessment• Use the Language Sample• Analyzed by

– 1. Length of utterance• MLU morphemes• MLR=words• T-units-complete sentences, one independent main

clause with any dependent clauses• C-units-phrases and sentences

– 2. Sentence types• Phrases• Sentences

– 4 simple sentences– compound– complex

Intervention

Intervention ideas• Syntactic Development is based on

Pragmatic RANGE OF COMMUNICAITON INTENTIONS– Therefore, must be meaningful!!!!

• Strategies of modeling specific constructions, expansion of child’s utterance, imitation

• Linking utterances• Use of kinesis, blocks, or some type of

VISUAL PROP to teach patterning• Use of Social Stories• More IDEAS:

Websites

Syntactic Summary• Syntactic Development is viewed as a

merging of cognition and language• More complete expression of the Speech

Act in communication• Assumes continued semantic acquisition • Syntactic acquisition is:

– Morphology acquisition – Brown’s 14 Grammatical Morphemes

– Syntactic Construction Expansion• Expanding from Telegraphic

to Phrases to Sentences

– Sentence Types• 4 simple sentence types• Compound• Complex

End of Syntax Discussion