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Published on: September 19, 2019
Syntactic complexity in Spanish narratives: a developmental study
V F Gutierrez-Clellen1, R Hofstetter
1Department of Communicative Disorders, College of Health and Human Services, San Diego State University, CA 92182-0151.
Abstract:
Syntactic complexity in the movie retellings of 77 school-age Spanish-speaking children was examined using a structural constituent analysis. The results demonstrated developmental differences in the length of T-units, index of subordination, use of relative clauses, and prepositional phrases. There were also differences in the length of T-units, use of nominal clauses, and adverbial phrases across Spanish language groups. The analysis underscores the significance of subordination as a cohesive device and as an indicator of narrative proficiency.
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