Indefinite Articles and Definite Forms in Swedish Children with Specific Language Impairment

Abstract

In many languages, children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI) show frequent omission of articles. Most articles in these languages are weak monosyllables. In Swedish, indefinite articles are prosodically comparable to articles in other languages, but definiteness is usually expressed through a suffix. We examined the use of articles in Swedish-speaking children with SLI in spontaneous data and a probe task. Children with SLI produced definite suffixes as accurately as control children. Indefinite articles were more problematic. In constructions in which an article must be supplied, the children with SLI omitted articles more frequently than the controls. We conclude that prosody contributes to the difficulty with articles. However, several details in the data indicated the added influence of lexical and/or grammatical factors.