A preliminary Descriptive Approach to the Morphosyntax of Catalan and Spanish Speakers with Williams Syndrome

Authors

  • Elga Cremades Universitat de les Illes Balears
  • Lluís Barceló-Coblijn Universitat de les Illes Balears

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.58859/rael.v23i1.640

Keywords:

análisis de errores, catalán, español, síndrome de Williams, sintaxis

Abstract

This paper aims to determine if there are differences in the production of morphosyntactic errors and in the complexity of sentence structures between speakers with Williams syndrome (WS) and speakers with typical development (TD). WS, a neurodevelopmental disorder caused by the deletion of genetic material on chromosome 7, has sparked debate regarding language, as some authors suggest that it is a preserved aspect while others argue that it is indeed affected. This paper thus constitutes another contribution to this debate. To this end, 30 spontaneous speech samples were analyzed through error analysis. The results show that, in general, speakers with WS produce more morphosyntactic errors than speakers with TD, and moreover, these errors tend to be of a different type. All this suggests that the syntactic ability of individuals with Williams syndrome differs, at least in part, from that of individuals with TD.

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Published

2025-01-31

Issue

Section

Artículos Nuevos