Development of Relative Clauses in African American
English
Gwynne Morrissey, Jill de Villiers, & Peter de Villiers
Smith College, Northampton, MA
Results
Question 1: Use of Relative Clauses to Specify the Referent
MAE Relative Clause Production: SS Prompts
d) The child could passivize the verb:
e.g. The cat sitting in the flowers is being fed by the man
100%
100%
90%
90%
DIS
90%
80%
80%
TYP
80%
70%
70%
10%
10%
20%
0%
0%
OS Pronoun Use
80%
70%
100%
90%
40%
80%
30%
70%
20%
10%
0%
4
5
6
8.5
60%
typaae
50%
typmae
40%
30%
Age Group
KEY: typ = typically developing
dis = disordered
MAE = Mainstream American English
AAE = African American English
10%
0%
n
100%
Prompt:
Relative Clause Use
© The Psychological Corporation
Here are two cats. They are
doing different things.
70%
60%
DIS
50%
TYP
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
4
5
6
Age Group
OS, F(3, 40) = 2.08, p = .12
An analysis of means of use of the zero relative versus that in SS
responses showed that only that increased with age.
80%
70%
60%
DIS
50%
TYP
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
4
Target: The man is feeding the cat that is sitting in the flowers.
OS, F(1, 40) = .04, p = .8
100%
Relative Clause Use
I need to know which cat it
is.
Dialect was not significant for either:
Targeted OS proved to be harder to produce than targeted SS in both
dialects.
SS, F(3, 56) = 2.77, p = .05
90%
5
6
Age Group
8.5
Clefts are more prevalent in MAE, likely because the it is… construction
is existential in AAE, therefore blocking it from being used in a cleft.
Passives are used earlier and more often in MAE, likely because the
construction requires -ed, a morpheme often optional in AAE.
Age was slightly significant for SS, but not for OS:
Prompt:
Age Group
A repeated measures test was run for the typically developing
children’s use of relative pronouns. Dialect and age were the
independent variables.
SS, F(1, 56) = 1.09, p = .3 or
8.5
AAE Relative Clause Production: OS Prompts
Tell me what is happening in
the red box on your picture.
who
80%
I have the same two cats.
Only you can see these
pictures.
that
Pronoun
90%
Method
Age Group
Topicalization in SS situations declines in the oldest group in both
dialects, but in OS situations, topicalization increases with age for AAE.
20%
MAE Relative Clause Production: OS Prompts
su
TYP
4
5
6
8.5
un
50%
4
5
6
8.5
100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
t
90%
100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
cl
ef
Pronoun
unsuc c essful
Relative clause strategies - AAE OS
Relative clause strategies - MAE OS
who
Percent usage
what
topic
l
that
cc
es
sf
u
n
DIS
SS
Age Group
0%
AAE Relative Clause Production: SS Prompts
60%
c left
unsuccessful
Age Group
100%
Dialect and clinical
status were
determined by a
combination of a
clinician report and
performances on the
DELV screener and
criterion-referenced
test.
topic
ul
10%
SS
sf
cleft
cc
es
Age Group
30%
un
su
8.5
20%
e
6
30%
20%
si
v
5
40%
30%
pa
s
4
typmae
40%
e
0%
50%
40%
50%
iv
10%
typaae
50%
pa
ss
20%
60%
4
5
6
8.5
60%
to
pi
c
30%
4
5
6
8.5
60%
O
S
70%
S
40%
SS
60%
Percent usage
100%
70%
50%
Relative clause strategies - AAE SS
Relative clause strategies - MAE SS
cl
ef
t
Total
77
73
153
140
443
c) The child could use a cleft structure with a relative:
e.g. It’s the cat sitting in the flowers that the man is feeding
Percent usage
8.5
25
23
25
31
104
b) The child could use a topicalization structure with a relative:
e.g. The cat that’s sitting in the flowers, the man is feeding it.
SS Pronoun Use
80%
Incidence
4
9
13
35
30
87
OS, F(1, 427) = 62.64, p < .000
Age was also highly significant for each:
SS, F(3, 427) = 8.29, p < .000
OS, F(3, 427) = 18.319, p < .000
However, dialect was not significant; both groups performed
equivalently on the task:
SS, F(1, 427) = .325
n.s.
OS, F(1, 427) = 1.59
n.s.
90%
Relative Clause Use
Group
disAAE
disMAE
typAAE
typMAE
Total
SS, F(1, 427) = 37.709, p < .000
Question 2: Relative Pronoun Use
100%
Participants
Age Group
5
6
18
25
18
19
36
57
41
38
113 139
a) Most primitively, the child could produce two independent
sentences, or a conjunction. These were counted as unsuccessful
attempts at relative clause production.
e.g. The cat’s sitting in the flowers and the man’s feeding it.
O
There are two types of interest in this study:
 SS: subject-subject
The relativized noun is the subject of the main clause and the relative
clause, as in
The mom who fed the baby is riding her bike.
 OS: object-subject
The relativized noun is the object of the main clause and the subject of the
relative clause, as in
The man fed the cat who was sitting in the flowers.
Previous research says that…
 in production, it is easier to relativize a subject than an object (Comrie,
1981),
 in comprehension, it is easier to parse an OS than an SS (Hamburger &
Crain, 1982; Kidd & Bavin, 2002)
Why might development of relative clauses in AAE-speaking children be
different?
AAE characteristics likely to affect relative clause acquisition.
Past tense –ed deletion, some times
She miss your call yesterday.
because of consonan t cluster reduction
Nonstandard relative pronoun what, zero the dog what we found in the street,
marker (Ø)
a whistle Ø sound like a bird
Appositive pronoun (topicaliz ation)
The girl that was dancing, her dad made
her a sandw ich.
Existential there  it
It’s so much stuff I hafta do.
Several syntactic alternatives to OS and SS relatives were used to get the
same meaning across.
to
pi
c
that Jack built.
 Specifies a referent, i.e. not the house that Joe built or the cheese in the fridge.
Question 3: Strategies Used to Replace Basic Relatives
Percent usage
This is the cat that killed the rat that ate the cheese that lay in the house
Results
Two ANOVAs were run, one each for success on SS and OS
relative clause types. Dialect (AAE versus MAE), clinical status
(typical versus disordered) and age (4, 5, 6, 8.5) were the
independent variables.
Clinical status was highly significant for both types:
Incidence
A postnominal modifier (i.e. noun descriptor), as in:
1. What is the difference between typically developing and
disordered children’s likelihood of producing a referent-specifying
relative clause at all?
2. Of the intended responses to both SS and OS items (i.e. SS relative
clauses and OS relative clauses), what relative pronouns were
used? Green has suggested that relative pronouns are more
optional and might be replaced by what in the adult AAE dialect
(2002). Is there a tendency for AAE speakers to drop the pronoun
or use a nonstandard one?
3. What strategies do children use in place of a basic relative clause?
Relative Clause Use
What is a relative clause?

Results
Research Questions
SS
Introduction
Interestingly enough, the only child to use a nonstandard relative
pronoun was an MAE speaker. All other zero uses were legitimate
(e.g. in reduced relatives). Use of relative pronouns by disordered
speakers was not analyzed due to small sample size (only 10
responses of disordered children included relative clauses requiring
relative pronouns).
Conclusions
1. The relative clause elicitation task proved to be a very useful diagnostic
indicator for children with language disorders. At the same time, it proved
useful for both AAE and MAE speakers, with no bias effects. However,
it is highly demanding.
2. Relative pronoun use did not show up differently on this task between
dialects, but this may reflect the limitation on types of relatives elicited. It
was not revealing for language disorder because so few disordered
children produced relatives at all.
3. Subtle dialect effects may be seen in the varieties of devices children use
in the task.
Poster presented at the ASHA Convention, Philadelphia, PA, 2004