The use of subject–verb agreement and verb argument structure in monolingual and bilingual children with specific language impairment

Abstract

This study investigates the use of subject–verb agreement and verb argument structure in the spoken Dutch of monolingual Dutch children with specific language impairment (SLI) and bilingual Frisian–Dutch children with SLI. Both SLI groups appeared to be less efficient in their use of subject–verb agreement and verb argument structure than the control group (consisting of monolingual typically developing Dutch children matched on mean length of utterance in morphemes) in that they showed significantly more agreement errors as well as a relation between verb agreement structure complexity and omission, a relation that the typically developing children failed to show. Furthermore, no significant differences were found between the monolingual and the bilingual SLI group. These findings indicate that subject–verb agreement and verb argument structure are both affected in SLI, but not more severely in bilinguals than in monolinguals.