Abstract
Individuals with agrammatic Broca's aphasia show deficits in production of functional morphemes like complementizers (e.g., that and if) and tense and agreement markers (e.g., -ed and -s), with complementizers often being more impaired than verbal morphology. However, there has been comparatively little work examining patients' ability to comprehend or judge the grammaticality of these morphemes. This paper investigates comprehension of complementizers and verb inflections in two timed grammaticality-judgment experiments. In Experiment 1, participants with agrammatic Broca's aphasia and grammatical-morphology production deficits (n=10) and unimpaired controls (n=10) heard complement clause sentences, subject relative clause sentences, and conjoined sentences. In Experiment 2, the same participants heard sentences with finite auxiliaries, sentences with finite main verbs, and sentences with uninflected verbs. Results showed above-chance accuracy in aphasic participants' judgments for complementizer sentences in Experiment 1, but chance performance for verb inflections in Experiment 2. This pattern held regardless of whether the verb inflections were affixes or free-standing auxiliaries. Implications of these results for theories of agrammatic morphological impairments, including feature underspecification accounts [Wenzlaff, M., & Clahsen, H. (2004). Tense and agreement in German agrammatism. Brain and Language, 89, 57-68; Burchert, F., Swoboda-Moll, M., & De Bleser, R. (2005a). Tense and agreement dissociations in German agrammatic speakers: Underspecification vs. hierarchy. Brain and Language, 94, 188-199] and hierarchical structure-based accounts [Friedmann, N., & Grodzinsky, Y. (1997). Tense and agreement in agrammatic production: Pruning in the syntactic tree. Brain and Language, 56, 397-425; Izvorski, R., & Ullman, M. (1999). Verb inflection and the hierarchy of functional categories in agrammatic anterior aphasia. Brain and Language, 69, 288-291], are discussed.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 35-65 |
| Number of pages | 31 |
| Journal | Journal of Neurolinguistics |
| Volume | 21 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jan 1 2008 |
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Keywords
- Agrammatism
- Aphasia
- Functional categories
- Grammatical morphology
- Grammaticality judgment
- Perception
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
- Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous)
- Linguistics and Language
- Cognitive Neuroscience
Cite this
}
Judgment of functional morphology in agrammatic aphasia. / Dickey, Michael Walsh; Milman, Lisa H.; Thompson, Cynthia K.
In: Journal of Neurolinguistics, Vol. 21, No. 1, 01.01.2008, p. 35-65.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
TY - JOUR
T1 - Judgment of functional morphology in agrammatic aphasia
AU - Dickey, Michael Walsh
AU - Milman, Lisa H.
AU - Thompson, Cynthia K
PY - 2008/1/1
Y1 - 2008/1/1
N2 - Individuals with agrammatic Broca's aphasia show deficits in production of functional morphemes like complementizers (e.g., that and if) and tense and agreement markers (e.g., -ed and -s), with complementizers often being more impaired than verbal morphology. However, there has been comparatively little work examining patients' ability to comprehend or judge the grammaticality of these morphemes. This paper investigates comprehension of complementizers and verb inflections in two timed grammaticality-judgment experiments. In Experiment 1, participants with agrammatic Broca's aphasia and grammatical-morphology production deficits (n=10) and unimpaired controls (n=10) heard complement clause sentences, subject relative clause sentences, and conjoined sentences. In Experiment 2, the same participants heard sentences with finite auxiliaries, sentences with finite main verbs, and sentences with uninflected verbs. Results showed above-chance accuracy in aphasic participants' judgments for complementizer sentences in Experiment 1, but chance performance for verb inflections in Experiment 2. This pattern held regardless of whether the verb inflections were affixes or free-standing auxiliaries. Implications of these results for theories of agrammatic morphological impairments, including feature underspecification accounts [Wenzlaff, M., & Clahsen, H. (2004). Tense and agreement in German agrammatism. Brain and Language, 89, 57-68; Burchert, F., Swoboda-Moll, M., & De Bleser, R. (2005a). Tense and agreement dissociations in German agrammatic speakers: Underspecification vs. hierarchy. Brain and Language, 94, 188-199] and hierarchical structure-based accounts [Friedmann, N., & Grodzinsky, Y. (1997). Tense and agreement in agrammatic production: Pruning in the syntactic tree. Brain and Language, 56, 397-425; Izvorski, R., & Ullman, M. (1999). Verb inflection and the hierarchy of functional categories in agrammatic anterior aphasia. Brain and Language, 69, 288-291], are discussed.
AB - Individuals with agrammatic Broca's aphasia show deficits in production of functional morphemes like complementizers (e.g., that and if) and tense and agreement markers (e.g., -ed and -s), with complementizers often being more impaired than verbal morphology. However, there has been comparatively little work examining patients' ability to comprehend or judge the grammaticality of these morphemes. This paper investigates comprehension of complementizers and verb inflections in two timed grammaticality-judgment experiments. In Experiment 1, participants with agrammatic Broca's aphasia and grammatical-morphology production deficits (n=10) and unimpaired controls (n=10) heard complement clause sentences, subject relative clause sentences, and conjoined sentences. In Experiment 2, the same participants heard sentences with finite auxiliaries, sentences with finite main verbs, and sentences with uninflected verbs. Results showed above-chance accuracy in aphasic participants' judgments for complementizer sentences in Experiment 1, but chance performance for verb inflections in Experiment 2. This pattern held regardless of whether the verb inflections were affixes or free-standing auxiliaries. Implications of these results for theories of agrammatic morphological impairments, including feature underspecification accounts [Wenzlaff, M., & Clahsen, H. (2004). Tense and agreement in German agrammatism. Brain and Language, 89, 57-68; Burchert, F., Swoboda-Moll, M., & De Bleser, R. (2005a). Tense and agreement dissociations in German agrammatic speakers: Underspecification vs. hierarchy. Brain and Language, 94, 188-199] and hierarchical structure-based accounts [Friedmann, N., & Grodzinsky, Y. (1997). Tense and agreement in agrammatic production: Pruning in the syntactic tree. Brain and Language, 56, 397-425; Izvorski, R., & Ullman, M. (1999). Verb inflection and the hierarchy of functional categories in agrammatic anterior aphasia. Brain and Language, 69, 288-291], are discussed.
KW - Agrammatism
KW - Aphasia
KW - Functional categories
KW - Grammatical morphology
KW - Grammaticality judgment
KW - Perception
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=37349084986&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=37349084986&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.jneuroling.2007.08.001
DO - 10.1016/j.jneuroling.2007.08.001
M3 - Article
VL - 21
SP - 35
EP - 65
JO - Journal of Neurolinguistics
JF - Journal of Neurolinguistics
SN - 0911-6044
IS - 1
ER -