This paper investigates the comprehension of Relative Clauses (RCs) in 15 Mandarin children with suspected Specific Language Impairment (SLI) (aged between 4; 5 and 6; 0) and 29 typically developing (TD) controls. Results from a Character Picture Matching Task indicate that (i) the subject RC was better understood than the object RC in children with SLI, but there was no asymmetry in the comprehension of the two RCs in TD children; (ii) the performance of children with SLI was significantly worse than that of their TD peers; (iii) children with SLI were prone to committing thematic role reversal errors and middle errors. In order to overcome the shortcomings of previous accounts, we therefore put forward the Edge Feature Underspecification Hypothesis, which can not only explain the asymmetry of comprehension seen in children with SLI but also shed light on the nature of errors committed by them in the task.

本文调查了 15 名疑似特定语言障碍 (SLI) 儿童（4 岁；5 至 6 岁；0 岁）和 29 名正常发育 (TD) 儿童对关系从句 (RCs) 的理解情况。人物图片匹配任务的结果表明：(i) SLI 儿童的主体 RC 比客体 RC 更容易理解，但 TD 儿童对两个 RC 的理解没有不对称性；(ii) 患有 SLI 的儿童的表现明显差于他们的 TD 同龄人；(iii) SLI 儿童容易犯主题角色反转错误和中间错误。为了克服前人记述的不足，我们因此提出了Edge Feature Underspecification Hypothesis，