Vulchanova, M. 1 , Talcott, J. 2 , Vulchanov, V. 3 & Stankova, M. 4
1 Norwegian University of Science & Technology, Trondheim, Norway
2 Aston University, UK
3 Norwegian University of Science & Technology, Trondheim, Norway
4 New Bulgarian University, Sofia, Bulgaria
In this paper we present results from a detailed study of two cases of linguistic talent in the context of autism spectrum disorder. We demonstrate that the individuals in our study display a specific strength at the level of morphology as well as syntax. Still, despite this grammar advantage, they find figurative language and inferencing based on context problematic. Such cases lend support to traditional structuralist models of language whereby language structure can be represented at different levels of granularity: starting from sound (phonology) through meaningful patterning between sound and semantics below the level of the word (morphemes), to word combinations (phrases). The morphology advantage that we report for Asperger’s syndrome is consistent with the Weak Central Coherence (WCC) Account of autism (Happé & Frith 2006, Frith & Happé, 1994). From this account, the presence of a local processing bias is evident in the ways in which autistic individuals solve common problems, such as e.g. assessing similarities between objects, finding common patterns, and may present an advantage in some cognitive tasks compared to typical individuals. We extend the WCC account to language, and provide evidence for a connection between the local processing bias and the acquisition of morphology and grammar, also coherent with Newport’s less is more hypothesis of language acquisition (Newport 1988, 1990). We argue that this account can explain the pattern of strengths and weaknesses within language skills in Asperger syndrome (Vulchanova, Talcott, Vulchanov & Stankova, under revision). We provide evidence from eye-tracking studies that demonstrate the limitations of this advantage whereby a distinction in grammatical function appears to mark the border between word level morphology (inflectional, derivational) and clause level morphology, such as e.g., clausal clitics.