Gender attribution and gender agreement in French Williams syndrome

Abstract

Previous studies on grammatical gender in French individuals with Williams syndrome (WS) have led to conflicting findings and interpretations regarding keys abilities—gender attribution and gender agreement. New production data from a larger WS sample ( N = 24) showed that gender attribution scores in WS participants exactly mirrored those of controls: all groups overwhelmingly relied on the masculine as the default gender. WS participants’ agreement scores were far lower than those of CA-controls though not significantly below those of MA-controls. They also did not improve with age, which might suggest a permanent disability in this area.