Unit:
Κατεύθυνση ΓλωσσολογίαLibrary of the School of Philosophy
Supervisors info:
Σπυριδούλα Βαρλοκώστα, καθηγήτρια, τμήμα Φιλολογίας, Φιλοσοφική Σχολή, ΕΚΠΑ
Βασίλειος Σπυρόπουλος, επίκουρος καθηγητής, τμήμα Φιλολογίας, Φιλοσοφική Σχολή, ΕΚΠΑ
Ελένη Παναρέτου, αναπληρώτρια καθηγήτρια, τμήμα Φιλολογίας, Φιλοσοφική Σχολή, ΕΚΠΑ
Original Title:
Κλιτικές αντωνυμίες στη διαταραχή αυτιστικού φάσματος
Translated title:
Clitic pronouns in autism spectrum disorder
Summary:
Previous research focusing on the grammatical abilities of Greek-speaking children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) aged 5-8 years old has revealed a mild deficit in both production and understanding of clitic pronouns (Terzi et al. 2014, 2016). However, subsequent research (Terzi et al. 2017) using narrative task did not arrive at similar results, since the groups had similarly high proportions of ambiguous clitics. A question, therefore, arises whether similar research in older groups of children would result in a different outcome. The present study investigates this possibility by focusing on the pronominal clitic use of a group of children with ASD aged 6;05–8;04 (mean age: 7;07) and a control group of typically-developing (TD) children, carefully matched on chronological age. In particular, the study focuses on measures of clitic productivity, ambiguity as well as textual discourse measures. The results showed no statistically significant difference between the groups, except one measure: the higher tendency of children with ASD to use clitics without antecedent in the preceding context. Further investigation into the one and only difference between the groups suggests that the difference most probably stems from a pragmatic deficit. Nevertheless, similar to Terzi et al. (2017), ambiguous uses of clitic pronouns were equally high for both groups. So, the question remains whether the investigation of clitic production in narratives would show any difference between older children groups.
Main subject category:
Language – Literature
Keywords:
autism spectrum disorder, clitic pronouns, narrative, production
