Abstract
A Sentence Forming Test has been developed as a quantitative and qualitative assessment tool for subjects' ability to formulate communicative utterances with characteristics of natural conversation. Thirty-three pairs of words with various degrees of semantic distances were used to elicit utterances. All words had high familiarity. Each pair was presented in writing and subjects were asked to form and orally express a sentence using these words.
The present study obtained data from 120 normal adults to determine central tendencies and variabilities of normal performances and to examine validity of the test. Attempts were also made to establish criteria for quantifying infinitive expressions, which often occur in Japanese conversation.
The results indicated that the distribution of normal responses (Mean=30.4, and SD=1.5) approximated the left half of normal distribution. The responses were characterized by a wide range of vocabulary and various syntactic structures, reflecting idiosyncrasy among subjects. Two criteria, “frequent appearance in responses of normal adults” and “meanings can be guessed from the context”, were found to be effective in determining adequacy of responses.
