Relative clauses: evidence of continued linguistic vulnerability in children with specific language impairment

It is hypothesized that children with specific language impairment (SLI) will have difficulties in the acquisition of complex syntactic structures. The studies reported provide evidence of linguistic vulnerability at the level of formulation of complex syntactic structures, specifically relative clauses, in three children with SLI participating in a longitudinal familial case study. In language samples, the proband omitted obligatory relative markers in subject relative clauses and made errors in selecting relative markers in object relative clauses. Two other children in the family, identified as SLI, evidenced omissions of obligatory subject relative markers in language sample data and elicited data. Of the five children in the family with a negative clinical history, omission of subject relative markers in language sample and elicited data was observed in only one child. The findings are consistent with Leonard's functional category deficits account of the grammatical limitations of children with SLI.