The Categories of Tense and Aspect in the Mental Grammar of Adult Subjects With Down Syndrome
Year: 2026
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: The study investigates how the categories of tense and aspect are represented in the mental grammar of adults with Down syndrome (DS), in light of Generative Grammar. Recognition, comprehension, and elicitation tests were administered to six participants with DS and two control groups (one child in the language acquisition phase and six typical adults). The results indicate that subjects with DS exhibit linguistic performance similar to that of typically developing children, revealing at times the category of tense and at other times the category of of aspect. It was partially found that the lexical/semantic aspect influences the grammatical aspect. It was observed that the present tense is the default tense and that simple verb forms are more frequent than periphrastic ones. The study contributes to understanding the interface between cognition and language in people with DS and its parallels with typical acquisition.
Source: Revista de Estudos da Linguagem
Institution: Pontifícia Universidade Católica de Minas Gerais
Language: English
Subfield: Developmental and Educational Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W7223325451