Language in Williams syndrome: A cross-linguistic perspective
Stavroula Stavrakaki, Ph.D.
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece
Course Prerequisites:
Basic knowledge of Psychology of Language, with some background in the area
of Experimental Psychology and Linguistics.
Course Description:
This course focuses on cross-linguistic aspects of language development
in Williams syndrome (WS). The course will begin with introducing the phenotype
of WS individuals; emphasis will be given to the relation between language
and cognitive abilities. In the next class, students will be introduced to
current contrasting theories of language abilities in WS. The main part of
the course will concentrate on language in WS, more specifically on early
linguistic abilities, vocabulary acquisition, morphology and morphosyntax
up to various aspects of syntax. Next to English data, data from WS individuals
with German, Hebrew, and Greek as their first language will be reported with
special emphasis on Greek data. In addition, methodological issues related
to research on the linguistic abilities in WS individuals will be considered.
The contribution of this cross-linguistic perspective to the better understanding
of the WS phenotype and language development under special circumstances will
be discussed. Finally, contrasting theories of language representation and
development in Willams syndrome will be discussed in the light of cross-linguistic
data.
Reading List
Bartke, S. & Siegmuller, J. eds. 2004. Williams syndrome across
languages. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.