The Management and Acquisition of Agreement: Errors and Etiology

Spelling errors of French third- & fifth-level high school students (N unspecified) are exemplified with commentary & excerpts of interviews regarding reasons for committing particular errors. Focus is on plural -s & feminine -e; problems verbalized by subjects (Ss) appear to indicate difficulty in applying well-learned rules. Although errors due to faulty knowledge are represented, the majority of Ss' errors fall into two etiological categories: errors in category identification & errors in the manipulation of morphological chains. The latter are most often triggered by the presence of an element that disrupts a morphological chain, leading to a failure to observe agreement rules. J. Hitchcock