  As to their language, there is currently a debate in the literature with regard to its normalcy. According to one point of view, the linguistic competence of WS individuals is remarkably normal, especially in comparison with that of similarly retarded individuals, such as those with Downs syndrome (Pinker 1994, 1997; Clahsen and Almazan 1998; Bello et al. 2004; Bellugi et al. 1998). While rather unusual in their choice of words (e.g., producing chihuahua, ibis and condor in addition to more usual animal words in a word fluency test) and despite an excessive use of clichés and social stock-phrases, their ability to use language, especially in conversational contexts, is more or less intact. For example, they may appear relatively normal in social interactions, and their processing of conditional questions and ability to repeat sentences with complex syntax is closer to that of normal controls than to matched Downs syndrome controls (Bellugi et al. 2000: 13, 15).