Abstract
In order to study problems of individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) with morphosyntax, we investigated twenty high-functioning Greek-speaking children (mean age: 6;11) and twenty age- and language-matched typically developing children on environments that allow or forbid object clitics or their corresponding noun phrase. Children with ASD fell behind typically developing children in comprehending and producing simple clitics and producing noun phrases in focus structures. The two groups performed similarly in comprehending and producing clitics in clitic left dislocation and in producing noun phrases in non-focus structures. We argue that children with ASD have difficulties at the interface of (morpho)syntax with pragmatics and prosody, namely, distinguishing a discourse prominent element, and considering intonation relevant for a particular interpretation that excludes clitics.
Highlights
Until recently, research on the language of individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) has addressed several domains of language, including phonology and the lexicon (Rapin et al 2009; Rescorla and Safyer 2013), with pragmatics and prosody being of particular importance, as this is where the most observable problems have been encountered throughout the autism spectrum (McCann and Peppe 2003; Tager-Flusberg 1999)
In order to study problems of individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) with morphosyntax, we investigated twenty high-functioning Greek-speaking children and twenty age- and languagematched typically developing children on environments that allow or forbid object clitics or their corresponding noun phrase
We argue that children with ASD have difficulties at the interface ofsyntax with pragmatics and prosody, namely, distinguishing a discourse prominent element, and considering intonation relevant for a particular interpretation that excludes clitics
Summary
Research on the language of individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) has addressed several domains of language, including phonology and the lexicon (Rapin et al 2009; Rescorla and Safyer 2013), with pragmatics and prosody being of particular importance, as this is where the most observable problems have been encountered throughout the autism spectrum (McCann and Peppe 2003; Tager-Flusberg 1999). The present study follows on the study by Terzi et al (2014) and addresses this issue It poses the question whether the difficulties in the reference and production of clitic pronouns that high-functioning Greekspeaking children with ASD demonstrate result from difficulties with aspects of (morpho)syntax or from difficulties at the interface of (morpho)syntax with pragmatics and/or prosody. Clitic left dislocation structures are well defined and described by contemporary linguistic theory (Anagnostopoulou 1997; Cinque 1997) They involve a clitic pronoun (ton in the sentence above) that is preceded by a noun phrase (ton Niko) in the very beginning of the sentence. For our study, unlike in (5), a co-referential clitic is not allowed in focus structures, as illustrated in (7) below (Grillia 2008; Rizzi 1997; Tsimpli 1995)
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