C-Command in the Grammars of Children with High Functioning Autism

Abstract

A recent study questioned the adherence of children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) to a linguistic constraint on the use of reflexive pronouns (Principle A) in sentences like Bart's dad is touching himself. This led researchers to question whether children with ASD are able to compute the hierarchical structural relationship of c-command, and raised the possibility that the children rely on a linear strategy for reference assignment. The current study investigates the status of c-command in children with ASD by testing their interpretation of sentences like (1) and (2) that tease apart use of c-command and a linear strategy for reference assignment. The girl who stayed up late will not get a dime or a jewel (C-command)The girl who didn't go to sleep will get a dime or a jewel (Non C-command) These examples both contain negation (not or didn't) and disjunction (or). In (1), negation c-commands the disjunction phrase, yielding a conjunctive entailment. This gives rise to the meaning that the girl who stayed up late won't get a dime and she won't get a jewel. In (2), negation is positioned inside a relative clause and it does not c-command disjunction. Therefore, no conjunctive entailment follows. Thus, (2) is true if the girl just gets a dime or just a jewel, or possibly both. If children with ASD lack c-command, then (1) will not give rise to a conjunctive entailment. In this case, children might rely on a linear strategy for reference assignment. Since negation precedes disjunction in both (1) and (2), they might be interpreted in a similar manner. Likewise, children who show knowledge of c-command should perform well on sentences governed by Principle A. These hypotheses were tested in experiments with 12 Australian children with HFA, aged 5;4 to 12;7, and 12 typically-developing controls, matched on non-verbal IQ. There was no significant difference in the pattern of responses by children with HFA and the control children on either (1) and (2) or the Principle A sentences. The findings provide preliminary support for the proposal that knowledge of c-command and Principle A is intact in HFA children.

Intersecting effects of sex/gender and autism on structural language: A scoping review

“…Most studies conducted on structural language in autism do not analyze their results according to sex/gender (e.g. Horvath et al, 2018; Kamio et al, 2007; Khetrapal & Thornton, 2017; King & Palikara, 2018) and may consequently miss important differences. An important first step in understanding the differences observed in the autistic phenotypes of men and women is to investigate whether the differences observed in neurotypical women and men are similar to what is observed in autistic people, particularly given the numerous sex/gender differences that have already been shown in other aspects of autistic development (Dean et al, 2014; Lai & Szatmari, 2020; Posserud et al, 2016).…”

Production and comprehension of pronouns in individuals with autism: A meta-analysis and systematic review

“…Access of c-command is necessary to recognize the antecedent to which the reflexive pronoun refers. To test whether access of c-command impacted the way individuals with HFA interpreted reflexive pronouns, Khetrapal and Thornton (2017) conducted two experiments. Results of the first experiment demonstrated children in HFA and TD groups interpreted statements that included either phrases in which negations c-command disjunction and phrases in which negations do not c-command disjunction in a similar manner.…”

“…Four studies (Janke & Perovic, 2015;Khetrapal & Thornton, 2017;Perovic et al, 2013aPerovic et al, , 2013b compared interpretation of reflexive and possessive pronouns embedded in sentences by matching them with a picture. Studies assessed sentence comprehension in at least two of the following four conditions: (a) control noun, in which all characters are referred to by name, for example, Bart is pointing to Dad; (b) name pronoun, in which the object pronoun refers to a character the subject is acting on, for example, Bart's Dad is washing him; (c) control possessive, in which the character acts on a nonperson object, for example, Bart's Dad is licking a lamp post; and (d) name reflexive, in which reflexive pronouns are used to refer to the characters' actions on themselves, for example, Bart's Dad is washing himself.…”

“…Possessive pronouns. Sentences used in all, but the control noun condition for the above studies (Janke & Perovic, 2015;Khetrapal & Thornton, 2017;Perovic et al, 2013aPerovic et al, , 2013b included possessive noun phrases (e.g. Bart's Dad).…”