Frank Wijnen
Biographic Data
| ID | 821087 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Frank Wijnen |
| GIVEN NAMES | Frank |
| FAMILY NAME | Wijnen |
| SIGNATURE | WIJNEN F |
| AFFILIATIONS | Utrecht University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-7196-6000 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 18 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 6 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 18 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1985 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
To unify, or not to unify, that is the question: A commentary on Taha et al. (2025)
Advances in science are often achieved by bringing together seemingly disparate phenomena or observations within a single explanatory theoretical framework. Hence, it is laudable that Taha et al. venture to propose that a collection of seemingly disparate observations on dyslexia can be explained by a single factor: a deficiency in anticipatory planning. Their effort, as they themselves state, is intended to advance the science of dyslexia by ins…
Grammatical skills of Dutch children with 22q11.2 Deletion Syndrome in comparison with children with Developmental Language Disorder: Evidence from spontaneous language and standardized assessment
Background Virtually all children with 22q11.2 Deletion Syndrome (22q11DS) experience language difficulties, next to other physical and psychological problems. However, the grammatical skills of children with 22q11DS are relatively unexplored, particularly in naturalistic settings. The present research filled this gap, including two studies with different age groups in which standardized assessment was complemented with spontaneous language analy…
Learning from atypical development: A systematic review of executive functioning in children and adolescents with the 22q11.2 deletion syndrome
Statistical Learning in the Visuomotor Domain and Its Relation to Grammatical Proficiency in Children with and without Developmental Language Disorder: A Conceptual Replication and Meta-Analysis
Children with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) have difficulties acquiring the grammatical rules of their native language. It has been proposed that children’s detection of sequential statistical patterns correlates with grammatical proficiency and hence that a deficit in the detection of these regularities may underlie the difficulties with grammar observed in children with DLD. Although there is some empirical evidence supporting this clai…
Children With Developmental Language Disorder Have an Auditory Verbal Statistical Learning Deficit: Evidence From an Online Measure
Successful language use requires the ability to process nonadjacent dependencies (NADs) that occur in linguistic input. Learning such structural regularities seems therefore crucial for children, and researchers have indeed proposed that language problems in children with developmental language disorder (DLD), especially problems with grammar, are due to their decreased sensitivity to NADs. Because the evidence supporting this claim is scarce, we…
Not compelling: Commentary on Evans 2014
Not compelling: Commentary on Evans 2014 Frank Wijnen Evans has written a book that contains all of the key ingredients of an introductory textbook on linguistics. It covers most of the subjects one would typically expect, and the reader encounters most of the big names any introductory text in linguistics usually mentions. The difference is that E couches everything in a pungently anti-nativist rhetoric. The empirical evidence presented is syste…
Gleaning Structure from Sound: The Role of Prosodic Contrast in Learning Non-adjacent Dependencies
The ability to detect non-adjacent dependencies (i.e. between a and b in aXb) in spoken input may support the acquisition of morpho-syntactic dependencies (e.g. The princess is kiss ing the frog). Functional morphemes in morpho-syntactic dependencies are often marked by perceptual cues that render them distinct from lexical elements. We use an artificial grammar learning experiment with adults to investigate the role of perceptual cues in non-adj…
Non-adjacent dependency learning in infants at familial risk of dyslexia
This study tests the hypothesis that developmental dyslexia is (partly) caused by a deficit in implicit sequential learning, by investigating whether infants at familial risk of dyslexia can track non-adjacent dependencies in an artificial language. An implicit learning deficit would hinder detection of such dependencies, which mark grammatical relations (e.g. between ‘is’ and ‘-ing’ in ‘she is happily singing’). In a head-turn experiment with in…
Optionality of finiteness: Evidence for a no-overlap stage in Dutch child language
This article addresses a child language stage that has figured prominently in the current debate on children’s early linguistic competence: the Optional Infinitive (OI) stage, a relatively extended period during which children freely alternate between finite and nonfinite structures in contexts where adults only use finite forms. The study examines the assumption of previous research that children’s utterances with finite or nonfinite forms are g…
Combining cognitive and interactive approaches to lingua receptiva
This study takes an experimental approach to ‘lingua receptiva’ (LaRa), a communication mode in which interlocutors each use their own – different – native language. In contrast to previous work on LaRa, this study investigates the phenomenon in genetically unrelated languages. Native speakers of Estonian and Russian were engaged in a ‘map task’, which requires verbal interaction in the service of problem solving, i.e. finding locations on a map.…
Processing Gapped Verbs
Root infinitives in Dutch early child language: An effect of input
Children who acquire Dutch as their first language show a strong preference for using infinitival verb forms during the early stages of grammatical development. This exemplifies the 'root infinitive' (RI) phenomenon, which has played a significant role in recent discussions on the development of syntax. Most accounts proposed thus far invoke an immaturity of the child's grammatical competence. We explore the possibility that the early predominanc…
The temporal interpretation of Dutch children's root infinitivals: The effect of eventivity
This study concerns the presence and status of Tense in young children's nonfinite main clauses, or root infinitivals (RIs). Verb- containing utterances produced by four Dutch-speaking boys (age range 1;9-3;2) were classified along the following dimensions: finite-infinitive; temporal reference, as indicated by linguistic and non-linguistic context; and type of verb - eventive vs. non- eventive. The data show that (a) the proportion of non-eventi…
The (non)realization of unstressed elements in children's utterances: Evidence for a rhythmic constraint
In this study it is argued that the omission of closed class morphemes and of unstressed syllables within words is related to their common characteristic, viz. that they are unstressed, rhythmically weak parts of utterances. Several strands of evidence indicate that it is unlikely that children are unable to perceive these elements in the input speech. The pattern of (non)realization of unstressed syllables within content words and the class of d…
Incidental word and sound errors in young speakers
The question that is addressed by this study is whether the language production mechanism in children differs from the adult system. This problem is approached by comparing some 250 incidental, i.e., nonsystematic word and sound errors extracted from a corpus of tape-recorded spontaneous speech of two 2- to 3-year-old boys, with tape-recorded speech errors in the London-Lund corpus (Garnham, Shillcock, Brown, Mill, & Cutler, 1982. In A. Cutler, E…
The development of sentence planning
This is an exploratory case study of the relation between speech output disturbances (dysfluencies) and the development of language production processes. The data consist of transcribed weekly speech samples of a Dutch boy between 2;4 and 2;11. The period of observation captures the early phase of the transition from ‘pre-grammatical’ to grammatical language. The frequency of occurrence of dysfluencies (i.e. repetitions, revisions and incomplete …
Spontaneous word fragmentations in children: Evidence for the Syllable as a Unit in Speech Production
The article's noun and the noun's article: Explorations into the representation and access of linguistic gender in Dutch
Article The article’s noun and the noun’s article: explorations into the representation and access of linguistic gender in Dutch was published on January 1, 1985 in the journal Linguistics (volume 23, issue 5)
Children With Developmental Language Disorder Have an Auditory Verbal Statistical Learning Deficit: Evidence From an Online Measure
Successful language use requires the ability to process nonadjacent dependencies (NADs) that occur in linguistic input. Learning such structural regularities seems therefore crucial for children, and researchers have indeed proposed that language problems in children with developmental language disorder (DLD), especially problems with grammar, are due to their decreased sensitivity to NADs. Because the evidence supporting this claim is scarce, we…
Processing Gapped Verbs
Spontaneous word fragmentations in children: Evidence for the Syllable as a Unit in Speech Production
The article's noun and the noun's article: Explorations into the representation and access of linguistic gender in Dutch
Article The article’s noun and the noun’s article: explorations into the representation and access of linguistic gender in Dutch was published on January 1, 1985 in the journal Linguistics (volume 23, issue 5)
The article's noun and the noun's article: Explorations into the representation and access of linguistic gender in Dutch
Article The article’s noun and the noun’s article: explorations into the representation and access of linguistic gender in Dutch was published on January 1, 1985 in the journal Linguistics (volume 23, issue 5)
Spontaneous word fragmentations in children: Evidence for the Syllable as a Unit in Speech Production
The development of sentence planning
This is an exploratory case study of the relation between speech output disturbances (dysfluencies) and the development of language production processes. The data consist of transcribed weekly speech samples of a Dutch boy between 2;4 and 2;11. The period of observation captures the early phase of the transition from ‘pre-grammatical’ to grammatical language. The frequency of occurrence of dysfluencies (i.e. repetitions, revisions and incomplete …
Incidental word and sound errors in young speakers
The question that is addressed by this study is whether the language production mechanism in children differs from the adult system. This problem is approached by comparing some 250 incidental, i.e., nonsystematic word and sound errors extracted from a corpus of tape-recorded spontaneous speech of two 2- to 3-year-old boys, with tape-recorded speech errors in the London-Lund corpus (Garnham, Shillcock, Brown, Mill, & Cutler, 1982. In A. Cutler, E…
The (non)realization of unstressed elements in children's utterances: Evidence for a rhythmic constraint
In this study it is argued that the omission of closed class morphemes and of unstressed syllables within words is related to their common characteristic, viz. that they are unstressed, rhythmically weak parts of utterances. Several strands of evidence indicate that it is unlikely that children are unable to perceive these elements in the input speech. The pattern of (non)realization of unstressed syllables within content words and the class of d…
The temporal interpretation of Dutch children's root infinitivals: The effect of eventivity
This study concerns the presence and status of Tense in young children's nonfinite main clauses, or root infinitivals (RIs). Verb- containing utterances produced by four Dutch-speaking boys (age range 1;9-3;2) were classified along the following dimensions: finite-infinitive; temporal reference, as indicated by linguistic and non-linguistic context; and type of verb - eventive vs. non- eventive. The data show that (a) the proportion of non-eventi…
Root infinitives in Dutch early child language: An effect of input
Children who acquire Dutch as their first language show a strong preference for using infinitival verb forms during the early stages of grammatical development. This exemplifies the 'root infinitive' (RI) phenomenon, which has played a significant role in recent discussions on the development of syntax. Most accounts proposed thus far invoke an immaturity of the child's grammatical competence. We explore the possibility that the early predominanc…
Non-adjacent dependency learning in infants at familial risk of dyslexia
This study tests the hypothesis that developmental dyslexia is (partly) caused by a deficit in implicit sequential learning, by investigating whether infants at familial risk of dyslexia can track non-adjacent dependencies in an artificial language. An implicit learning deficit would hinder detection of such dependencies, which mark grammatical relations (e.g. between ‘is’ and ‘-ing’ in ‘she is happily singing’). In a head-turn experiment with in…
Optionality of finiteness: Evidence for a no-overlap stage in Dutch child language
This article addresses a child language stage that has figured prominently in the current debate on children’s early linguistic competence: the Optional Infinitive (OI) stage, a relatively extended period during which children freely alternate between finite and nonfinite structures in contexts where adults only use finite forms. The study examines the assumption of previous research that children’s utterances with finite or nonfinite forms are g…
Combining cognitive and interactive approaches to lingua receptiva
This study takes an experimental approach to ‘lingua receptiva’ (LaRa), a communication mode in which interlocutors each use their own – different – native language. In contrast to previous work on LaRa, this study investigates the phenomenon in genetically unrelated languages. Native speakers of Estonian and Russian were engaged in a ‘map task’, which requires verbal interaction in the service of problem solving, i.e. finding locations on a map.…
Processing Gapped Verbs
Not compelling: Commentary on Evans 2014
Not compelling: Commentary on Evans 2014 Frank Wijnen Evans has written a book that contains all of the key ingredients of an introductory textbook on linguistics. It covers most of the subjects one would typically expect, and the reader encounters most of the big names any introductory text in linguistics usually mentions. The difference is that E couches everything in a pungently anti-nativist rhetoric. The empirical evidence presented is syste…
Gleaning Structure from Sound: The Role of Prosodic Contrast in Learning Non-adjacent Dependencies
The ability to detect non-adjacent dependencies (i.e. between a and b in aXb) in spoken input may support the acquisition of morpho-syntactic dependencies (e.g. The princess is kiss ing the frog). Functional morphemes in morpho-syntactic dependencies are often marked by perceptual cues that render them distinct from lexical elements. We use an artificial grammar learning experiment with adults to investigate the role of perceptual cues in non-adj…
Statistical Learning in the Visuomotor Domain and Its Relation to Grammatical Proficiency in Children with and without Developmental Language Disorder: A Conceptual Replication and Meta-Analysis
Children with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) have difficulties acquiring the grammatical rules of their native language. It has been proposed that children’s detection of sequential statistical patterns correlates with grammatical proficiency and hence that a deficit in the detection of these regularities may underlie the difficulties with grammar observed in children with DLD. Although there is some empirical evidence supporting this clai…
Children With Developmental Language Disorder Have an Auditory Verbal Statistical Learning Deficit: Evidence From an Online Measure
Successful language use requires the ability to process nonadjacent dependencies (NADs) that occur in linguistic input. Learning such structural regularities seems therefore crucial for children, and researchers have indeed proposed that language problems in children with developmental language disorder (DLD), especially problems with grammar, are due to their decreased sensitivity to NADs. Because the evidence supporting this claim is scarce, we…
Learning from atypical development: A systematic review of executive functioning in children and adolescents with the 22q11.2 deletion syndrome
Grammatical skills of Dutch children with 22q11.2 Deletion Syndrome in comparison with children with Developmental Language Disorder: Evidence from spontaneous language and standardized assessment
Background Virtually all children with 22q11.2 Deletion Syndrome (22q11DS) experience language difficulties, next to other physical and psychological problems. However, the grammatical skills of children with 22q11DS are relatively unexplored, particularly in naturalistic settings. The present research filled this gap, including two studies with different age groups in which standardized assessment was complemented with spontaneous language analy…
To unify, or not to unify, that is the question: A commentary on Taha et al. (2025)
Advances in science are often achieved by bringing together seemingly disparate phenomena or observations within a single explanatory theoretical framework. Hence, it is laudable that Taha et al. venture to propose that a collection of seemingly disparate observations on dyslexia can be explained by a single factor: a deficiency in anticipatory planning. Their effort, as they themselves state, is intended to advance the science of dyslexia by ins…
Linguistics (16 works) · Psychology (16 works) · Language Development and Disorders (13 works) · Computer Science (9 works) · Reading and Literacy Development (8 works) · Artificial Intelligence (7 works) · Philosophy (7 works) · Cognitive psychology (5 works) · Artificial Intelligence (4 works) · Cognition (4 works)