Transcript Sample Analysis (Cont`d)

Assessment of
Morphology
& Syntax
Expression
Objectives
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What is MLU
Stages of Syntactic Development
Examples of Difficulties in Syntax
Why preferring the term “morphosyntax”
The Assessment
Methods of Analysis
What is MLU?
• stands for mean length of utterance
• a measure of syntax development
• is the average number of morphemes or words that
a client produces in an utterance
• N.B. MLU for words does not reflect the use of bound
morphemes (i.e. will be equal to or smaller than the
MLU for morphemes)
MLU (Cont’d)
• provides important information about
language development
– i.e. an indicator of a language delay or
disorder
• For Computing MLU, look at :
Box 6-3 Page 205-206 (Lund & Duchan)
Syntactic Development
• One word syntax
– Word acts like a whole sentence
– Holophrase single words express ideas adults
would say in a sentence
– Contains pragmatic & semantic information
• One word syntax (Cont’d)
– Transition to syntax
• end of the of the single-word period
• Using the same word with different intonation patterns
or with accompanying gestures to express different
intentions
• The use of successive single words that relate to the
same event
• Indications of moving toward word combinations
• Two word combinations
– 18-20 months
– When have acquired about 50 single words
– Telegraphic utterances
• They contain
– Content-carrying words (nouns,verbs ,& adjectives)
– Low-information words
(pronouns,articles,prepositions ) + inflectional
morphemes
•Multiword combinations
– Utterances of 3 or more words
– When equal numbers of 1-word & 2-word
utterances are produced
– MLU (1.5)
– Simple clauses
• Simple clauses that appear at this stage
• more expanded (articles, adj., adv., … are added)
• combined to form multiclause utterances
• Multiword combinations (Cont’d)
– Development of verbs
• Simple action verbs (e.g. eat & do)
• Verbs indicating change in location (e.g. put & sit)
• Verbs indicating the state of the subject (e.g. want &
know)
– Demonstrative pronouns (e.g. this, that & it)
appear frequently as the subject of the sentence
e.g. That a cow
• Multiple clauses
–Appear between 2-3 years of age
–MLU (3+)
–Appearance of multiple clauses with no
connectives (e.g. you take that one, I take
that one)
–Appearance of connective and
• Connecting words
• Connecting 2 clauses
• Multiple clauses (Cont’d)
– Appearance of Wh- words (e.g. I
remember where it is, when I get big I
can lift you up)
– Appearance of simple relative clauses
(e.g. that a box that they put it in)
Difficulties in syntax:
• are encountered as a wide range of
identifiable phenomena
– examples
• difficulties of message structure
• confuses pronouns/prepositions
• has few determiners
• does not put endings on verbs
• can not construct complete sentences
Why the term “morphosyntax”
was chosen instead of sytax?
• wide-range of clinical symptomatology
• Rarely,
– a disorder will respect a linguistic boundary
such as that between
• Morphology & syntax
• Syntax & lexis
– disorders affecting these areas without
affecting the area of meaning
Assessment of expressive
morphosyntax
• Points to consider
– Speakers execute utterances and don’t actually
speak in sentences
• Speech is executed in units that are smaller or bigger than
sentences
– Within utterances, speech is prosodically structured
in tone groups
• So, prosodic factors help to mark the status of a word/phrase
• Points (Cont’d)
• MLU measure correlates with syntactic
complexity until the MLU (3) is reached
• MLU above (3) overestimates grammatical
complexity of delayed language children
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Elicitation procedures
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Eliciting complements
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Introduce the unexpected (e.g. it is blue)
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Descriptive games
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Verbal scenarios
Eliciting verb tenses (present and past)
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Narrative activities
• Elicitation procedures (Cont’d)
– Eliciting multiple clause sentences
• Description games
• Story telling or retelling
– Eliciting question forms
• The messenger game
– Eliciting negatives
• Creating the need for objects that are not present
• Introducing the unexpected
• Patterned practice
• Elicitation procedures (Cont’d)
– Eliciting lexical verb clauses
• Improbable picture (e.g. what is wrong
with the picture)
• Description games (e.g. telling a third
person what the clinician is doing)
Sample Analysis
• Segment sample into utterances
• Calculate MLU
• Identify all syntactic features
• Close portions -excluded from MLU
calculation- in parentheses
Sample Analysis (Cont’d)
• Detailed analysis of a language sample
• (e.g. LARSP-Language Assessment and Screening
Procedure)
• List the structures that are ready to be
analyzed
• Organize each structure errors
Sample Analysis (Cont’d)
• Analysis of Clause Structure Production
1. Listing transcript of clauses utterances
2. Exclude
A. utterances that were excluded from MLU
computation
B. Questions
3. Indicate errors
4. Categorize the utterances
5. Note
A. Clause types used
B. Frequency
C. Where errors occurred
Sample Analysis (Cont’d)
• Noun Phrase Analysis
1. list the noun phrases
2. Indicate the errors
3. Eliminate utterances that are
A. Stereotyped
B. Direct imitations
4. Include
A. Elliptical utterances
B. Questions that were excluded from clause analysis
Sample Analysis (Cont’d)
• Question Analysis
1. Identify all questions, including those formed
with intonation
2. List & classify all questions (e.g. yes-no, wh-)
3. Indicate the questions that have errors
4. Note
A. if child does not use any questions
B. Uses only one form
Sample Analysis (Cont’d)
• Negation Analysis
1. List all syntactic negation forms
2. Note the few instances of syntactic negation
used
3. Indicate the forms with deviations from adult
structure