SRCLD Presentation Details
  Title  
       
    Acquisition of Verbs with Fixed and Alternating Argument Frames  
Author(s)
Bernard Grela - University of Connecticut

SRCLD Info
SRCLD Year: 2005
Presentation Type: Poster Presentation
Poster Number:
Presentation Time: (na)
Categories
- Language Impairment, 0-5
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to examine the ability of children with SLI to abstract the meaning of novel verbs when they were introduced in either a fixed or alternating argument frame. Children with SLI (4;8 to 6;2) were compared to a group of younger, typically developing children matched for vocabulary development. The children were exposed to video clips depicting 27 unfamiliar action sets with a fixed intransitive, fixed transitive, or an alternating (intransitive/transitive) argument frame. A novel verb was presented while the children observed different characters performing unfamiliar actions. Following the presentation of a set of actions, the children were asked to identify the target action by pointing to one of three video clips. The results showed no difference between participant group. However, the children were likelier to identify the target actions in the fixed conditions. These results suggest that children are able to learn verbs with a fixed argument structure more quickly than verbs with an alternating argument structure.