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Noun case suffix use by children with specific language impairment: An examination of Finnish

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 December 2012

LAURENCE B. LEONARD ,
SARI KUNNARI ,
TUULA SAVINAINEN-MAKKONEN ,
ANNA-KAISA TOLONEN ,
LEENA MÄKINEN ,
MIRJA LUOTONEN  and
EEVA LEINONEN
LAURENCE B. LEONARD*
Affiliation:
Purdue University
SARI KUNNARI
Affiliation:
University of Oulu
TUULA SAVINAINEN-MAKKONEN
Affiliation:
University of Oulu
ANNA-KAISA TOLONEN
Affiliation:
University of Oulu
LEENA MÄKINEN
Affiliation:
University of Oulu
MIRJA LUOTONEN
Affiliation:
Oulu University Hospital
EEVA LEINONEN
Affiliation:
King's College
*
ADDRESS FOR CORRESPONDENCE Laurence B. Leonard, Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, 500 Oval Drive, Heavilon Hall, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907. E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

A group of Finnish-speaking children with specific language impairment (N = 15, M age = 5 years, 2 months [5;2]), a group of same-age typically developing peers (N = 15, M age = 5;2), and a group of younger typically developing children (N = 15, M age = 3;8) were compared in their use of accusative, partitive, and genitive case noun suffixes. The children with specific language impairment were less accurate than both groups of typically developing children in case marking, suggesting that their difficulties with agreement extend to grammatical case. However, these children were also less accurate in making the phonological changes in the stem needed for suffixation. This second type of error suggests that problems in morphophonology may constitute a separate problem in Finnish specific language impairment.

Type
Articles
Information
Applied Psycholinguistics , Volume 35 , Issue 4 , July 2014 , pp. 833 - 854
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012 

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