GAPS in the verb lexicons of children with specific language impairment

Abstract

This is a study of the verb lexicons of three preschool boys with specific language impairment. The database was a corpus of 5486 spontaneous utterances collected over a 3-month period. The children relied heavily on a small set of General All-Purpose (GAP) verbs to fill the verb functions. Their overall verb error rate was very low (2% of their utterances). In general, their verb usage conformed to expected rules of form class assignment and argument structure. Their occasional substitution errors suggest semantic mismarkings and on-line problems of stem retrieval. Overall, the picture is of localized verb learning, at an early stage of mastery, supplemented by heavy use of the GAP verbs.

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