Debate over language?s link with intelligence

A critical comment to Piattelli-Palmarini's review of the book "Pathways to language" by Kyra and Annette Karmiloff-Smith. According to Piattelli Palmarini children with Williams syndrome (WS) have a barely measurable intelligence but an exquisite mastery of syntax and vocabulary. Based on our extensive research on English and Italian children with WS we argue that intelligence is certainly testable in WS, syntactic abilities never exceed mental age, and syntax is far from perfect Individuals with WS are extremely interesting for research on language and cognition, because they display an unusual profile of strengths and weaknesses, but they do not provide evidence for intact language in absense of measurable intelligence.