Retelling a Script-Based Story: Do Children With and Without Language Impairments Focus on Script and Story Elements?

This study examines the Universities’ Anthems in Nigeria as a distinct Genre. The present study analyzes a corpus composed of ten (10) anthems texts belonging to six federal Universities, two State owned Universities, and two private Universities in Nigeria. This study seeks to establish University anthems in Nigeria as a sub-genre of anthems by identifying the Generic structure Potential (GSP) of the selected university anthems as permitted by their contextual configuration (CC) following the theory of Halliday and Hasan (1985) as a theoretical framework for the study. The analysis in this study intends to come up with the total range of optional and obligatory elements in the University anthems analysed which are the possibilities of text structure for every text that can come up under the Genre of University anthem. The analysis revealed two obligatory elements -Identity/ Orientation IO* and Mission /Vision MV*- and five optional elements- Ideology (ID), Evocation/Eulogy (EE), Prayer (PR), Exhortation (EX), and Pledge/Allegiance (PA). The study concludes that even though University anthems, as a form of poem seemingly appear in different structures, there is a certain pattern of a Generic Structure that construes the purpose the anthems are intended to serve for the institutions; that is to communicate the identity of the institution.

The production of causal sentences (e.g. The house went on fire because the girl was playing with matches) is a key component of the ability to produce explanations, which in turn is an important aspect of children's developing discourse skills. While informal observations by professionals suggest that children with language impairments often have difficulties in producing (and comprehending) causal sentences, there is a dearth of systematic research evidence on the scope and characteristics of such difficulties. The study reported herein aimed to establish the scope and characteristics of the difficulties that children with language impairments have with causal sentence production. In particular, it investigated whether they have difficulties with (1) producing causal connectives (because and so), (2) producing semantically appropriate causal sentences, and (3) coordinating the production of more than one clause. The performance of 5-7-year-old children with language impairments (the LI group, n = 30) was compared with that of typically developing chronological age peers (the CA group, n = 30) on four elicited production tasks designed to encourage children to talk about pictures of causally related events. The tasks required the children to answer causal questions, to complete and imitate causal sentences, and to produce full causal sentences. Although the groups did not differ in the overall frequency with which they used causal connectives, the LI group produced fewer causal connectives than the CA group on tasks involving higher processing demands, as well as producing a lower percentage of semantically appropriate responses on most tasks. The LI group found imitating causal sentences more difficult than answering causal questions and completing causal sentences, whereas the CA group showed a similar level of performance across these three tasks. Although 5-7-year-old children with language impairments have causal expressions in their repertoire, they have marked and extensive problems in using these expressions appropriately and in producing full causal sentences even when these are modelled for them. Given the educational importance of explanation, there is a clear need for interventions to target both the semantic appropriateness of causal sentence production and the frequency of use of causal connectives, especially in contexts where children have to cope with the additional processing demands associated with producing two-clause sentences and/or with producing causal sentences autonomously.

In almost all traditional and modern grammar books, it is admitted that simple sentence has two obligatory elements, its subject and predicate, which are named in different terms. On most occasions it is observed that the notion of the subject and predicate is known with other terms as topic- focus by Hokiti or theme-rheme by representatives of School of Pague. Representatives of Functional grammar are based on this approach as well. Certainly, these terms do not match with subject and predicate as a syntactic category of the language. Definitions of the subject and predicate often encounter problems, because the sentence contains not only obligatory elements it contains other optional elements as well. DOI: 10.5901/ajis.2015.v4n3s1p637

The goal of this research was to investigate children’s recall of optional and obligatory elements of a script-based story as the retention period increased. Typically developing children, 20 kindergarteners and 20 second graders, participated. Children were asked to retell a story immediately after exposure to it, as well as one week post-, and two weeks post-exposure. Findings provide evidence that children of both age groups were able to marshal their script knowledge to recall stories over time. Older children were able to recall more elements and more of both, obligatory and optional elements, than younger children across all recall attempts.

Systemic Functional Linguists introduced Generic Structural Potential (GSP) that can be used to distinguish different social activities of a text. A variety of researches have been conducted on Generic Structural Potential of the editorials of other countries. However, no research has been conducted about the editorials of Myanmar newspaper. Therefore, The Myanmar Times newspaper, written in English, is chosen to carry out a research. The aim of the research paper is to identify the schematic structural elements of the editorials in The Myanmar Times newspaper. The materials are measured using Generic Structure Potential proposed by Halliday and Hason (1985). The result of the study shows that there are two obligatory elements and five optional elements. Heading (H), and Contributing the Writer’s Opinion (O) are obligatory while Picture (P), Caption(C ), Addressing the issue (AI) , Background Information (BI), and Discussing the issue Raised (D) are optional elements. The sequence of the elements follows the procedure H^ (P)^{ *(BI) *(AI) *(D) }^O.

This study’s purpose was to examine the use of auxiliary BE forms in African American English (AAE)-speaking children with and without language impairment. The impetus for this work was a lack of information in the literature about BE use in AAE as a function of form, language status, and tasks, and the relevance of this type of data for testing one theoretical model of childhood language impairment, the Extended Optional Infinitive account (EOI; Rice, Wexler, & Cleave, 1995). Thirty African Americans participated: 10 six-year-olds with specific language impairment (SLI); 10 age controls (AM); and, 10 language controls (LM). All of the participants were classified as speakers of AAE through listener judgments. Production of the auxiliary BE forms was examined through language samples and an elicited probe. A grammaticality judgment task, which measured the participants’ marking preference and reaction time of three BE forms, was also administered. Analyses were hindered by limited tokens in the language samples, high variability, and a bimodal distribution for the AM group in the elicitation probe. When steps were taken to address these issues, the following results were found. A significant group difference was revealed between the SLI and AM groups in the language samples for are, with a marginally significant difference for is. For the elicitation probe, a group difference was found between the SLI and LM groups across all three BE forms. The results of the grammaticality judgment task were inconsistent with those for production. For this task, SLI and LM groups accepted standard-marked am at higher rates than the AM group. No group differences were revealed for the reaction times in this task. However, the participants accepted items containing are more quickly than those containing is and am. The results of this study neither fully support nor refute the EOI account, but do suggest the need for more research regarding the nature of child language impairment as it relates to dialect variation across different tasks and different age groups.

Studies suggest that the oral narratives of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are less organized than those of typically developing peers. Many studies, however, do not account for children's language abilities. Because language impairment (LI) is a frequent comorbid condition in children with ADHD, this exploratory study investigated language abilities and narrative organization skills in children with and without ADHD. Narratives were elicited using the picture‐sequence task and the single‐picture task from the Test of Narrative Language (Gillam & Pearson, ). The causal network model (Trabasso, Van den Broek, & Suh, ) was applied to analyse the narratives. Specifically, narratives were examined to identify complete and incomplete superordinate and subordinate Goal‐Attempt‐Outcome (GAO) units. The results revealed no differences among the groups in the picture‐sequence task. Children with ADHD+LI produced significantly fewer complete superordinate GAO units than typical children in the single‐picture task. Theoretical and clinical implications are discussed.

This article explores the communicative acts employed in the creation of HIV/AIDS posters which focus on people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) and their relatives/friends and investigates the generic structure of these posters. Van Leeuwen’s multimodal communicative acts and Yuen’s Generic Structure Potential of printed advertisements serve as the theoretical framework for the study. The data include six purposively selected HIV/AIDS posters which focus on educating and counselling PLWHA, obtained from two state hospitals in south-western Nigeria. The multimodal communicative acts include those of instructing, advising, beckoning, encouraging, warning and informing. Lead, Emblem, Announcement and Enhancer are obligatory elements while Display, Tag and Call-and-Visit Information are optional elements. The study shows that there is heavy reliance on semiotic resources which signal the intended meaning of the producers of the posters.

Christian street evangelism is one of the Bible-based doctrinal practices found among Nigerian Christians, especially in Southwestern Nigeria. Studies have examined language use in Christian activities, including sermons in church services, at funerals and in marriage ceremonies. However, no scholarly attention has been paid to a linguistic description of language use in Christian street evangelism, which, although sit hares some features with other contexts of Christian activities, manifests some elements that characteristically define it within the series of Christian evangelistic activities. This study, therefore, is a generic structural potential analysis of Christian street evangelism in Southwestern Nigeria. Data were gathered using ethnographic techniques. Data comprised fifteen observed street evangelism activities randomly sampled in different cities in Southwestern Nigeria. Data were subjected to discourse analysis within the purview of Halliday and Hassan’s (1985) Generic Structure Potential (GSP) theory. Findings reveal Christian street evangelism features five obligatory elements: songs, greetings, sermon, prayer and finis; and three optional elements: declaration of purpose, call for confession, and welcome to the fold.

With the return of civilian rule in 1999 to the Nigerian democratic landscape, electoral litigation has become an integral part of Nigerian history. The advent of Electoral litigation has become a defining feature of Nigeria's democratic landscape since the return to civilian rule in 1999. This study investigates the generic structure potential of Nigerian Supreme Court judgements on gubernatorial election petitions from Southwestern Nigeria between 1999 and 2023. With systemic functional linguistics as theoretical framework, this study analysed ten Supreme Court judgements in this context to arrive at ten distinct elements. These elements are divided into the obligatory elements, namely: Case Overview, Review of Court of Appeal Proceedings, Reference to Law, Application of Law, and Appeal Verdict, and the optional elements, namely: Production of Issues, Grounds of Appeal, Assessment of Preliminary Objection, Analysis of Cross Appeal Issues, and Summary and Conclusion. The elements formed the generic structure potential formula as: [CO^ RCAP^ (PI) ● (GA)^ (APO)^ {RL^ AL}^ AV^ {(ACAI)^ (SC)}]. This study contributes to legal literacy by bridging a communication gap by crafting a road map for individuals outside the legal profession to understand these judgements and contribute to democratic conversation.

Communication gaps between members of the legal profession and people outside the profession still leave a lot to be explained. This study investigates the technicality of written legal documents by studying 10 Nigerian Supreme Court rulings, specifically the outcome of cases of human rights violations by the Nigerian military regime. Nine purposively selected excerpts were analysed using generic structure potential elements. The analysis generated nine elements, five of which are obligatory and the other four optional. The obligatory elements are Review of Lower Court Proceedings, Reproduction of Issues, Reference to Authorities, Application of Authorities, and Final Verdict. The optional elements are Review of Facts, Reproduction of Pleadings, Analysis of Evidence, and Analysis of Argument. This study concludes that generic structure potential is a useful theory for demystifying complex texts.

Christian street evangelism is one of Bible-based doctrinal practices found among Nigerian Christians, especially in Southwestern Nigeria. Studies have examined language use in Christian activities, including sermons in church services, funerals and marriage ceremonies. However, no scholarly attention has been paid to a lin- guistic description of language use in Christian street evangelism, which, although shares some features with other contexts of Christian activities, manifests some elements that characteristically define it among the series of Christian evangelistic activities. This study, therefore, is a generic structural potential analysis of Christian street evangelism in Southwestern Nigeria. Data were gathered using ethnographic techniques. Data comprised fifteen observed street evangelism activities randomly sampled in different cities in Southwestern Nigeria. Data were subjected to discourse analysis within the purview of Halliday and Hassan’s (1985) Generic Structure Potential (GSP) theory. Findings reveal Christian street evangelism features five obligatory elements: songs, greetings, sermon, prayer and finis; and three optional elements: declaration of purpose, call for confession, and welcome to the fold.

This paper investigates the generic structural potential of admission notifications of four Pakistani universities: University of Central Punjab, University of Gujrat, University of Sargodha, and University of Education Lahore. Total forty admission notifications are selected for the genre analysis in light of systemic functional linguistics. Halliday and Hasan (1989 concept of “Generic Structural Potential (GSP)” for genre analysis, served as the theoretical framework for this study. This study highlights that the admission notifications analyzed has six obligatory elements: Logo, University Name, Announcement, Respective Department, Programs Offered, and Call info and five Optional elements: Admission Schedule, Instructions, Information desk, Why Choose Us? and Scholarship and Discounts. The study posits that the GSP of advertisements of admission notifications of universities in Pakistan could be cataloged as [L^UN^]A^RD^PO^[(AS)^(I).(ID).(WCU).(S)]^CI

This paper investigated the generic structure potential of feature articles in four Nigerian newspapers: The Punch, The Nation, Vanguard and Nigerian Tribune. Halliday and Hassan’s concept of Generic Structure Potential served as the theoretical framework. The feature articles analysed had three obligatory elements: Headline, Orientation and Addressing the Issue, and three optional elements: Feature Lead, Proffering a Solution and Moral Lesson. A Nigerian newspaper feature article typically starts with a headline that may or may not be followed by a feature lead. This is followed by an orientation, an issue to be addressed, which is then followed by either a suggested solution or a moral lesson. The study posited that the GSP of feature articles in Nigerian newspapers can be catalogued as H^ [(FL) ^O^][AI^(PS).(ML.)].

The article focuses on a generic structure analysis of Nigerian presidential inauguration speeches from 1999 to 2015. The data for the study comprised five (5) Nigerian presidential inauguration speeches that have been delivered from May 29, 1999 to May 29, 2015. The selected Nigerian inauguration presidential speeches were subjected to Halliday and Hasan's Generic Structure Potential Theory and ten (10) discourse elements were identified. Out of the ten (10) discourse elements, eight (8) obligatory elements were identified: Title (T), Opening Acts (OA), Protocol (P), Recognition of Predecessors (RoP), Manifesto (M), Call for Support (CfS), Closing Acts (CA), and Customary Declaration (CD). Two (2) optional elements were identified: Theme (TH) and Acknowledgement of God (AoG). The GSP for Nigerian presidential inauguration speeches from 1999 to 2015 yielded: [T.(TH)]^[(AoG)^OA]^{P^RoP^}^{M}^[CfS^CA^CD].