Pronominal semantic confusion in a hearing-impaired child: a case study

Abstract

The present paper reports a case study of a hearing-impaired girl who made persistent first and second person pronoun errors for about eight months. Comprehension and production of first and second person pronouns were systematically examined from 28 months to 39 months of age to evaluate two hypotheses concerning pronominal errors: (a) that they are due to semantic confusion, or (b) that they result from temporary adoption of addressee's perspective. It was expected that her reduced ability to benefit from overhead conversations due to hearing loss as well as her spoken language learning environment would promote semantic confusion such that a pronoun is a type of name. Consistent with our expectation, the results revealed that pronominal errors she made were due to semantic confusion: me/my referred to her mother and you referred to herself.