Metalinguistic abilities in literate adults.
Item
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Title
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Metalinguistic abilities in literate adults.
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Identifier
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AAI9207074
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identifier
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9207074
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Creator
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Gjerlow-Johnson, Kristine Cecilie.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Loraine K. Obler
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Date
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1991
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Language, Linguistics
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Abstract
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Metalinguistic ability is demonstrated when a speaker evaluates or manipulates the form of some linguistic unit in a language, as distinct from its content. This can occur at any linguistic level. Words can be considered for their phonological shape, rather than their meaning. A sentence can be judged for well-formedness or intonational pattern rather than for semantic content.;Linguists have reported informally that native speakers are not all equally able to comment on structural properties of language. Moreover, even a survey of the existing literature on metalinguistic ability reveals studies in which subjects demonstrate obvious differences in ability.;The focus of this dissertation is an investigation of the variability in the metalinguistic performance of a large population of literate adults. In order to study both differences between groups and individual performance on a wide range of tasks, a two-stage research design was employed.;In Phase I, large groups of Graduate Students, High School Seniors and Adults with High School Education were given three metalinguistic tasks: one phonological, one morphological and one syntactic. The phonological task required subjects to add or delete phonemes in words to yield other words. The morphological task required manipulation of nonsense words presented in context. The syntactic task elicited well-formedness judgments, first bimodally and then on a relative scale.;In Phase II, a smaller group of subjects with outstanding Phase I metalinguistic performance was given seven other metalinguistic tasks requiring: (1) syllable counting; (2) segment counting; (3) analyzing and synthesizing polymorphemic words; (4) representing intuitions about syntactic structure; (5) paraphrasing nonsense compounds; (6) repeating sentential intonation patterns; (7) detecting sentential ambiguity.;Significant differences between groups formed on education, age, sex and familial handedness were found. More educated subjects performed better on the phonology, morphology and syntax tasks. Age was found to have a positive effect on morphological ability. There was a tendency for male subjects to out-perform female subjects on the phonology task. Right-handed subjects with no left-handed family members achieved better average syntax and morphology scores than did right-handers with familial sinistrality. Subjects were not found to be consistent in their metalinguistic performance across tasks.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
