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Production and comprehension of graphic symbol utterances expressing complex propositions by adults who use augmentative and alternative communication systems

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 June 2004

ANN SUTTON ,
JILL P. MORFORD  and
TANYA M. GALLAGHER
ANN SUTTON
Affiliation:
Université de Montréal
JILL P. MORFORD
Affiliation:
University of New Mexico
TANYA M. GALLAGHER
Affiliation:
University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign
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Abstract

We explored production and comprehension of complex sentences constructed using a limited vocabulary on a graphic symbol display with voice output by 25 adults who use augmentative and alternative communication. When asked to construct subject (SS) and object (OS) relative clause sentences, only a minority of participants encoded SS and OS relative clause sentences using different word orders. When asked to interpret graphic symbol utterances, most participants chose an SS interpretation. Thus, the word order used most frequently in production appeared to have a single preferred interpretation. The relationship between the word orders produced in graphic symbol utterances and the way the same word orders are interpreted is not necessarily straightforward.

Type
Articles
Information
Applied Psycholinguistics , Volume 25 , Issue 3 , June 2004 , pp. 349 - 371
Copyright
© 2004 Cambridge University Press

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