On the concomitants of poor verb inflection in dysphasic speech

In order to find concomitants of poor verb inflection, inflectional systems, use of temporal and local adverbials, and narrative structures in three boys with dysphasic and delayed language development were studied. Two of the boys displayed relatively balanced development of verb and noun inflection while one mastered noun inflection clearly better than verb inflection. Problems of verb inflection were connected to problems with the use of time adverbials and with the progression of narratives and the expression of temporal relations. It is suggested also that the dependence of the grammaticality of utterances on their semantic and interactional function and on the complexity of utterances may be a risk factor in morphological development and especially in the development of verb inflection