ABSTRACT

P honology and inflectional morphology in English present the analyst with relativelyconstrained systems within which impairment can be defined. This is not true ofsyntax, although definitions of this level can be beguilingly straightforward. Trask (1993, p. 273) provides this succinct description: “[t]he branch of grammar dealing with the organization of words into larger structures, particularly into sentences.” Such a broad sweep is necessary to embrace structures from simple noun phrases to sentences with recursion, but it underplays the complexity of the problem space. It also misses the psychological dimension resulting from Chomsky’s view of grammar (Chomsky, 1965) as the description both of a language, and of the linguistic knowledge of the native speaker (see chapter 6 by Botwinik-Rotem & Friedmann). As inflectional morphology-a paradigmatic dimension of sentence structure-is addressed elsewhere in this volume (see chapter 15 by Oetting & Hadley), I consider exclusively the syntagmatic-linear-dimension that Trask’s definition encapsulates. To address the intrinsic complexity of syntax, linguists have developed distinct theoretical approaches and a variety of descriptive frameworks. In facing the considerable problems posed by the nature of the system and linguists’ solutions to dealing with it, those working in language impairment have adopted different strategies. They have focused the spotlight of a particular theory, usually Chomskyan, onto their data, or they have applied a descriptive framework to one subarea of syntax, or to the profiling of the full range of individuals’ syntactic abilities and deficits. In this light it is perhaps not surprising that, in contrast to phonology and inflectional morphology, no coherent picture of syntactic impairment in English-speaking children emerges. After three decades of research, we have a reasonable grasp of what phonological impairment looks like. And there is ample evidence that tense and agreement inflections in English pose a particular problem for children with language impairment. So far, comparable clarity is not available for syntax. In what follows we review work on syntactic impairment primarily in children with specific language impairment, but also in those with other developmental disabilities.