Università di Padova, Padua, Italy.
Int J Lang Commun Disord. 2011 Sep-Oct;46(5):564-78. doi: 10.1111/j.1460-6984.2011.00008.x. Epub 2011 Sep 1.
Although relationships among non-word repetition, real-word repetition and grammatical ability have been documented, it is important to study whether the specific nature of these relationships is tied to the characteristics of a given language.
The aim of this study is to explore the potential cross-linguistic differences (Italian and English) in the relationship among non-word repetition, real-word repetition, and grammatical ability in three-and four-year-old children with typical language development.
METHODS & PROCEDURES: To reach this goal, two repetition tasks (one real-word list and one non-word list for each language) were used. In Italian the grammatical categories were the third person plural inflection and the direct-object clitic pronouns, while in English they were the third person singular present tense inflection and the past tense in regular and irregular forms.
OUTCOMES & RESULTS: A cross-linguistic comparison showed that in both Italian and English, non-word repetition was a significant predictor of grammatical ability. However, performance on real-word repetition explained children's grammatical ability in Italian but not in English.
CONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONS: Abilities underlying non-word repetition performance (e.g., the processing and/or storage of phonological material) play an important role in the development of children's grammatical abilities in both languages. Lexical ability (indexed by real-word repetition) showed a close relationship to grammatical ability in Italian but not in English. Implications of the findings are discussed in terms of cross-linguistic differences, genetic research, clinical intervention and methodological issues.
尽管已经记录了非单词重复、实义词重复和语法能力之间的关系，但研究这些关系的特定性质是否与特定语言的特征有关是很重要的。
本研究旨在探讨在具有典型语言发展的 3 至 4 岁儿童中，非单词重复、实义词重复和语法能力之间的潜在跨语言差异（意大利语和英语）。
为了达到这个目的，使用了两个重复任务（每个语言的一个实义词列表和一个非词列表）。在意大利语中，语法类别是第三人称复数屈折和直接宾语代词，而在英语中，语法类别是第三人称单数现在时态屈折和规则和不规则形式的过去时态。
跨语言比较表明，在意大利语和英语中，非单词重复是语法能力的一个重要预测指标。然而，在意大利语中，实义词重复的表现可以解释儿童的语法能力，但在英语中则不能。
非单词重复表现所依赖的能力（例如，语音材料的处理和/或存储）在两种语言中儿童语法能力的发展中起着重要作用。词汇能力（由实义词重复来衡量）与意大利语中的语法能力密切相关，但在英语中则不然。研究结果从跨语言差异、遗传研究、临床干预和方法学问题等方面进行了讨论。
