고기능자폐아동의 부정문 이해

Negative Sentence Comprehension of Korean Children with High Functioning Autism

배경 및 목적: 본 연구에서는 고기능자폐아동의 전제하기와 관련된 능력인 부정문 이해의 특성을 언어능력일치 집단과 비교하여 살펴보았다. 방법: 고기능자폐아동 집단과 언어능력일치 집단에게 컴퓨터 프로그램을 이용하여 조사과제 조건(주격조사표지/주제보조사표지/무표지)과 어순과제 조건(표준어순/도치어순)에 따라 부정문을 들려주고 부정표지(행위자/대상/행위)에 따른 선택반응과 반응시간을 각각 분석하였다. 결과: 첫째, 고기능자폐아동 집단은 세 조사과제 조건 모두에서 대상부정을 많이이 선택한 언어능력일치 집단과 달리 행위부정 그림을 가장 많이 선택하였다. 둘째, 고기능자폐아동 집단은 주제보조사표지 조건에서는 주어진 정보인 행위보다는 새로운 정보인대상에 부정을 표지하는 경향성을 반결할 수 있었다. 마지막으로, 고기능자폐아동 집단은 무표지 조건에서는 주어진 정보인 행위부정을 더 많이 선택하였으며, 전체적으로 언어능력일치아동 집단보다 부정표지에 더 오랜 반응시간이 걸렸다. 논의 및 결론: 고기능자폐아동의 경우에도 전제 맥락이 주어진 경우에는 언어적으로 반복되는 정보를 부정문의 전제로 활용할 수 있지만, 무표지나 도치어순 등 언어적 맥락이 일반적이지 않은 경우 많은 어려움이 있음을 확인할 수 있었다. 특히 고기능자폐아동 집단에게 무표지 단서가 새로운 정보에 대한 부정표지에 방해요인으로 작용한 것으로 해석하였으며, 주제보조사 '은/는'의 단서 효과를 장애아동의 언어중재와 관련지어 논의하였다.

Background & Objectives: The purposes of this study were to identify the characteristics of presupposition in children with high fU llCtioning autism (HFA) and to examine the mechanisms of their negative sentence comprehension which require presuppositional skill as a pragmatic abili ty. Methods: Fony children panicipmed in this study: 20 children with HFA were between ages 6.0- 8.1 1 years and the other 20 were normal children matched on the language age with the HFA group (LA cantrol group). In this study, we used the forced-choice task to examine the mechanisms of the comprehens ion o( negative sentences which were presented with presupposit ional context. The experimenl consisted of two conditions: First, the particles conditions were subjective particle 'ilia!' marking, topic-contrastive particle '(n)un' mark 109, and empty marking. Second, the word order conditions. consisted of normal word order versus reverse word order. The responses were counted according to the categories of negation (agent negation, object negation, and action negarion) and the latency of the responses was a lso measured. Results: The principal findings of thi s study were as follows: (1) In the HF A group, when the negative sentences were presented as given informa tion, the responses were more action-oriented. In contrast, the agent-c ha n~ed pictures were chosen more :frequently in the LA control group. In the topic-contrastive particle (n)un ' marking condition, the o bj ect-negated 1?icmres were selected more as their comprehension in the HF A group compared to the other condillons, and (2) The response latency in the HFA group was significantly longer than the LA controls. The HF A group needed less time to respond to the topic-contrastive particle '(n)un' marking condition than the other conditions. The response time ofthe HF A group in the two-word o rder cond itions showed no significant di ffere nces compared with the LA controls. DiSCll$sion & Conclll$ion: The resu lt of this study shows that c hildren with HFA may suffer some trouble in comprehending negative sentences because of their difficu lry with presuppositional skills. The implication ofibis study might be that for Korean-speaking chIldren with HFA, the particle '(n)un' marking must be more careru lly considered than empty marking or subj ective particles markmg in their fo rmation of negative sentences.