Comprehension and production of cliticsin high functioning children with Autism:Impaired syntax, discourse/pragmatics or

prosody?

Arhonto Terzi, TEI Western Greece, Patras

Theodoros Marinis, University of Reading

Konstantinos Francis, University of Athens

GALA, NANTES, 10-12/9/2015

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Introduction

• Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a complex developmental disorder characterized by atypical communication, and restricted repetitive and stereotyped patterns of behavior, interests, and activities (ICD-10, WHO 1993).

• Language delays and impairments are also be part of the spectrum.

• However, research on language in autism has mainly focused on pragmatics and prosody.

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Introduction

• Recently, grammar has been investigated, with mixed findings.

• Some claim that basic grammatical knowledge is generally intact in children with ASD. Grammatical problems are related to pragmatic challenges (e.g., Naigles, 2013).

• Others argue that the grammatical development of children with ASD is atypical (LeNormand et al., 2013; Perovic et al., 2013b).

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Language in autism

English speaking children with autism: lower performance in some domains of grammar:

• Tense morphology (optional infinitive), therefore, similarities with SLI in this respect (Roberts et al. 2004);

• Passive sentences (Perovic et al. 2008);• Detecting violations (only) on two phenomena/omissions:

-s, -ing (Eigsti & Bennetto 2009);• Reference of reflexive pronouns (Principle A of Binding

Theory) (Perovic et al., 2013a; 2013b).

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Language in autism

Aims of this study:• Investigate the acquisition of syntax in Greek-speaking

high functioning children with ASD;• Clarify on selective syntactic deficits of high-functioning

children with ASD, and their potential relationship with other domains of language (pragmatics, prosody).

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Language in autism: Greek

Recent work on high functioning Greek-speaking children with autism reveals:

Relative strengths:• Comprehension of reflexive and full pronouns;• Detecting case marking violations (Terzi, et al., 2012; 2014);

• Pragmatic abilities – speech acts, question asking (Marinis, et al., 2013).

Relative weaknesses: • Comprehension and production of clitic pronouns

(Terzi, et al., 2012; 2014);

• Pragmatic abilities – contrastive reference, coherence in narratives (Marinis, et al., 2013). 6

Difficulties with pronominal clitics may reflect incomplete knowledge of the use of clitics due to:

1.A syntactic deficit.2.Lack of knowledge of the discourse/pragmatic conditions under

which clitics are used. 3.Lack of knowledge of the intonation patterns with which clitics are

(or, are not) associated.

Research Questions:• Are the difficulties only with clitics or also with DPs? • Do the difficulties reflect deficits in morpho-syntax, syntax,

pragmatics or prosody?

The answers are of interest beyond Greek. 7

Language in autism: clitics

Clitic environments

A study of where clitics should or cannot be used.

•Simple Clitics

Non-stress bearing elements, referring to a salient element in the discourse. (Anagnostopoulou 2007; Mavrogiorgos 2010 after Heim’s 1982 Prominence Condition)

•Clitic Left Dislocation

Displaced DP in the beginning of the sentence. DP conveys old information, and is not the result of movement. DP and clitic are nevertheless related (via a predication chain). (Anagnostopoulou 1999; Cinque 1997) 8

Language in autism: clitics

Non-clitic environments

•Simple DPs

Referring expressions usually providing new information.

•Focused DPs

Displaced DPs in sentence initial position. DP bears special intonation (Focus accent), conveys new information and contrasts with an implicitly mentioned entity. The result of movement. No clitic is allowed. (Cinque 1997; Rizzi 1997)

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Language in autism: clitics

The current study: Participants

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• 20 high functioning children with ASD,

Age: 5;5 to 8;8 years

(Μ: 6;11, SD: 13.9, in months). Previous study: 20 children, Mean age: 6;08)

• 20 TD children,

Age: 5;1 to 8;2 years

(M: 6;7, SD:11.5, in months) Previous study: 20 children, Mean age: 6;09)

ASD children were diagnosed with DSM-IV-TR criteria and ADOS (Lord et al. 2000)

Each child with autism was matched with a TD child on the Greek PPVT (+/- 5 points).

The current study: baseline tasks

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Baseline tasks• Non-verbal abilities (Raven, 1998);• Vocabulary (Greek PPVT);• Morpho-syntax (DVIQ: Stavrakaki & Tsimpli, 2000).

Working Memory• Listening span• Digit ordering span

The current study: experimental tasks

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• Comprehension (picture selection)

a) Clitics, b) Clitic Left Dislocation (CLLD).

Pseudo-random presentation of items.

• Production (with pictures)

a) Clitics, b) DPs, c) CLLD, d) Focus, e) DPs.

Conditions presented in blocks

For each task (comprehension & production):• 2 practice items;• 6 items per condition;

Results – baseline tasks

Non-verbal IQ1 standard score

Vocabulary2 raw score

Morpho-syntax3

raw score

Listening spanraw score

Digit spanraw score

Children with ASD [n=20]

104.880-130SD: 18.2

92.976-123SD: 14.9

20.7515-24SD: 0.52

4.60-12SD: 4.06

7.90-24SD: 5.9

Language controls [n=20]

95.580-115SD: 7.9

93.174-122SD: 14.7

21.417-24SD: 0.46

4.80-11SD: 4.02

8.45-17SD: 3.5

p = 0.044 ns ns ns ns

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1 Raven’s colour matrices2 Greek PPVT3 DVIQ

CliticsO papus ton skepazi.the-nom grandpa-nom him-acc covers‘Grandpa covers him.’

Clitics: comprehension

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(Terzi, et al., 2012; 2014)

Clitics (Chondrogianni, Marinis, Edwards & Blom, 2014)

[Introduction : Here is a wolf and a cat.]Question: What does the wolf do to the cat?Target answer: Τi filai.

her-acc kisses‘He kisses her.’

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Clitics: production – answer a question

Results – Clitics

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Main effect of Group:TD children > ASD children

Main effect of task:Comprehension > Production

Clitics: comprehension errors

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O papus ton skepazi.the-nom grandpa-nom him-acc covers‘Grandpa covers him.’

7/0

Introduction : Here is a wolf and a cat.Question: What does the wolf do to the cat?Target answer: Τi filai.

her-acc kisses‘(He) kisses her.’

Error typesDP: Filai ti gata [=kisses the cat]Omission: Filai [=kisses]

Clitics: production errors

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14/7Out of 116

3/0Out of 119

Clitic Left DislocationTon papu ton skepazi.the-acc grandpa-acc him-acc covers‘He covers grandpa.’

CLLD: comprehension

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Clitic Left Dislocation Introduction : Here is a cat, a wolf, and a goat.

Question: Who kisses the cat?Target answer: Τi gata …. ti filai o

likos. the cat her-acc kisses the

wolf.‘It is the wolf that kisses her.’

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CLLD: production – answer a question, sentence completion task

Results – Clitic Left Dislocation

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No main effect of Group, task or interactions:All groups perform equally well in the two conditions.

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Full DPs (1)[Introduction : Here is a wolf and a cat.]Question: What does the wolf do?Target answer: Agaliazi ti gata.

hugs the cat‘He hugs the cat.’

DPs: production – answer a question

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DPs: production – answer a question

Full DPs (2)[Introduction : Look at this picture.]Question: What does the wolf do?Target answer: Agaliazi ti gata.

hugs the cat‘He hugs the cat.’

Focus[Introduction : Here is a sheep, a wolf and a cat.]Question: Who is the wolf hugging?Target answer: TI GATA … agaliazi o likos.

the cat hugs the wolf‘It is the cat that the wolf hugs.’

Focus: production – answer a question, completion task

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Prosodic cues of

focused DP make

the use of clitic

ungrammatical

Results – DPs vs. Focus

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Main effect of typeType x Group interaction: the two groups perform differently:

For DP1 and DP2: ASD = TD

For focus: ASD < TD

TD children: DP1 < DP2 = focus

ASD children: DP1=focus < DP2

Both groups benefit from context, fewer errors on DP2 than on DP1

[Introduction : Here is a wolf and a cat.]Question: What does the wolf do?Target answer: Agaliazi ti gata.

hugs the cat‘He hugs the cat.’

Error types:Clitic: Tin agaliazi. [=her hugs]Reversal: Tin agaliazi i gata.[=her hugs the cat]Omission: Agaliazi.[=hugs]

DP1: production errors

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50/4/2Out of 117

75/1Out of 119

Mostly use of clitics in both groups

DP2: production errors

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Question: What does the wolf do?Target answer: Agaliazi ti gata.

hugs the cat‘(He) hugs the cat.’

Error types:Clitic: Tin agaliazi. [=her hugs]Reversal: Tin agaliazi i gata.[=her hugs the cat]Omission: Agaliazi. [=hugs]

3/4/3Out of 119

8/3Out of 120

Both groups benefit from

context, fewer errors in DP2

than DP1, but ASD also

reversals

Introduction : Here is a sheep, a wolf and a cat.

Question: Who is the wolf hugging?Target answer: TI GATA … agaliazi o likos.

the cat hugs the wolf

‘It is the cat that the wolf hugs.’Error types:Clitic: TI GATA … tin agaliazi o likos. Reversal: TI GATA … tin agaliazi to liko. SVO: TI GATA … o likos agaliazi ti gata.

Focus: production errors

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15/3/10Out of 102

4/3/2Out of 92

Mostly use of clitics in both groups

SUMMARY

• Children with ASD:•Simple clitics: difficulties in comprehension (reversal) and production (DPs and omissions);

•CLLD: Relatively high comprehension and production (no difference from TD children);

•DPs: sensitive to the context in the production of DPs (very few errors, similar to TD; different errors depending on the discourse);

•Focus constructions: they don’t benefit from intonation in the production of (errors: clitics, SVO).

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Structure

Target

Morpho-Syntax

Discourse

Prosody

Clitics Clitic Clitic Old Informati

on

CLLD Citic CliticChain

Old Informati

on

DP1 DP New Informati

on

DP2 DP New Informati

on

Focus DP Movement

New informati

on

Focalstress

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SUMMARYProblems with morpho-syntax of clitics? NO

Structure

Target

Morpho-Syntax

Discourse

Prosody

Clitics Clitic Clitic Old Informati

on

CLLD Citic CliticChain

Old Informati

on

DP1 DP New Informati

on

DP2 DP New Informati

on

Focus DP Movement

New informati

on

Focalstress

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SUMMARYProblems with discourse? NO

Structure

Target

Morpho-Syntax

Discourse

Prosody

Clitics Clitic Clitic Old Informati

on

CLLD Citic CliticChain

Old Informati

on

DP1 DP New Informati

on

DP2 DP New Informati

on

Focus DP Movement

New informati

on

Focalstress

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SUMMARYProblems with prosody? Possible or a combination of several factors

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CONCLUSION• Greek-speaking high-functioning children with ASD

have difficulties not only with clitics but also with DPs;

• Clitics: not-sensitive to the context of clitics (perhaps problems with Salience Condition, Heim 1982)

• DPs: • Prosody or Movement or both;• Difficulty to map Focus accent to new

information; • Aligning syntactic, discourse, prosodic

information.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This research has been co-financed by the European Union (European Social Fund - ESF) and Greek national funds through the Operational Program "Education and Lifelong Learning" of the National Strategic Reference Framework (NSRF) - Research Funding Program: ARCHIMEDES III. Investing in knowledge society through the European Social Fund.

We thank:• Τhe clinics in Athens and Patras.• Τhe 6th and the 19th and Public Schools and the 42nd Public kindergarten

in Patras. • Τhe children that participated and their parents.

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