The Structure of the Nominal Group and Elaboratedness of Code

A linguistic analysis was made of the grammatical structure and lexis of the nominal groups used in the speech of six-year-old working class girls to describe a set of pictures. The girls differed on three independent variables: verbal intelligence test scores, participation in a daily language programme for over four terms, and complexity of speech elicited a year earlier in a different situation. The dependent variables were the linguistic environment of the nominal groups, the extent and type of modification and qualification, and the lexical exponents. Participation in the language programme and high intelligence test scores were generally associated with a higher incidence of nominal groups in clauses, compound modification, complex rankshifted qualifiers and a wider range of adjectives. A correlational analysis was found to justify the construction of a summary score for the complexity of the nominal group structure and this index successfully discriminated between the experimental groups.