Function word limitations in specific language impairment: Syntactic and metrical factors

Children with specific language impairment (SLI) imitated two types of function words, the pronoun you and the article the in two metrical feet, trochees and iambs, and in two syntactic positions, subject phrases and object phrases. The SLI subjects showed poorer imitation of these forms than did their MLU-matched normally developing (ND) controls; however, the patterns of results for the two groups were similar. Both groups imitated function words less frequently in iambs and in subject phrases. Both groups showed poorer use of articles than pronouns in some contexts. Analysis of the spontaneous speech of the two groups revealed similar trends; namely, function words occurred infrequently in obligatory contexts, particularly in subject position. There was an additional asymmetry between personal pronouns and articles in subject and object phrases: The children used pronouns more frequently in subject position and article plus noun constructions more frequently in object position. Together, trends in the data consistently showed that both the SLI and ND children were limited in their use of function words occurring leftward in metrical feet and utterances. Perception or production processing constraints could account for these limitations