Title
The Development of Four English Inflections in the Speech of Educable Mentally Retarded Adolescents
Sponsor
Portland State University, Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences
Date of Award
1975
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science (M.S.) in Speech: Emphasis in Speech Pathology/Audiology
Department
Speech Communication
Physical Description
1 online resource (87 p.)
Subjects
People with mental disabilities -- Language, English language -- Inflection
DOI
10.15760/etd.2255
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate the development and use of certain grammatical morphemes, i.e., the English inflections for plural, possessive, present progressive and past tense in the speech of educable mentally retarded (EMR) adolescents. The performance on two grammatical tasks of EMR subjects was compared to that of normal control subjects matched by mental age scores. The first task was to produce, verbally, the required inflection for a novel (nonsense) word on a modified version of Berko’s Test of English Morphology (BTEM) (Berko, 1958). Secondly, subjects responded to grammatical contrasts in lexical or real words at levels of imitation, comprehension and production on a modified form of the Imitation, Comprehension and Production Test (ICP) (Fraser, Bellugi and Brown, 1963).
The results of this study revealed statistically significant poorer performance in the use of English inflections by EMR adolescents when compared with control subjects of similar mental age, specifically in the use of less common allomorphs for plural, possessive and past tense.
Persistent Identifier
http://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/15232
Recommended Citation
Richard, Nancy Barton, "The Development of Four English Inflections in the Speech of Educable Mentally Retarded Adolescents" (1975). Dissertations and Theses. Paper 2258.
https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/2258
10.15760/etd.2255
Description
A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Speech Communication with Emphasis in Speech Pathology/Audiology