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Abstract:
WS adults manifest surprising verbal fluidity in contrast to
their low nonverbal IQ. Some argue that this contrast provides
evidence for the modularity of language (Pinker, 1997). Others
argue that the linguistic abilities of people with WS are impaired
commensurate with their IQ (Maratsos & Matheny, 1994). Studies
have yielded inconsistent results. Subjects with WS appear to have
extracted the correct English regular past tense rule (Bromberg, et
al., 1994) but French speakers with WS have substantial difficulty
mastering gender (Karmiloff-Smith, et al., 1997). This study
focused on English count/mass system (c/m) which shares features
with French gender that should make it equally difficult to learn.
However, unlike gender, the c/m system has a regular semantics. The
hypothesis that people with WS acquire language much like second
language learners was examined. Subjects were tested on a variety
of production and comprehension tasks including tests of implicit
and explicit sensitivity to violations of c/m syntax. Participants
were adults with WS (n=12), native English speakers (n=4), and
bilinguals (n=13). WS subjects showed sensitivity to the
restrictive properties of c/m determiners. Their performance in the
grammatical judgment task exceeded that of bilinguals who learned
English post puberty. Additionally, we replicated the findings of
Bromberg, et al. (1994). We contrast WS adults' success in the
linguistic tasks with a striking developmental asymmetry in
non-linguistic tasks probing spatial reasoning, and calculations of
discrete vs. continuous quantity.
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