RELATIVE PRONOMINAL LEXEMES: ACQUISITION AND USE BY A CHILD WITH OHP

Abrosova Ekaterina Valerjevna

In this paper we consider the acquisition of relative-interrogative pronouns as a means of connecting parts of complex sentences, in children with specific language impairment (SLI) in comparison with children without SLI. Our research is based on the observation of a five year old child with SLI. The results of our analysis show that, despite a significant delay in the acquisition of syntactical means, the general mechanisms and the order of acquiring the conjunctional function of relative-interrogative pronouns are the same as in children without SLI. In typical as well as atypical speech development, the pronouns in question perform both the original relative function and other ontogenetically earlier functions such as interrogative or emphatic ones in the 'intermediate' type of sentence. The most difficult construction to acquire, both for children with and without SLI, is the complex sentence with correlative pronouns, where the pronouns and their correlatives perform the anaphoric function.

Keywords:dysontogenesis, specific language impairment, language acquisition, relative pronouns, complex sentence.