Abstract
Background: Agrammatic speakershaveproblemswithgrammaticalencodinganddecoding.However,
not allsyntacticprocessesareequallyproblematic:presenttimereference, who questions,andreflexives
can beprocessedbynarrowsyntaxaloneandarerelativelysparedcomparedtopasttimereference,
which questions,andpersonalpronouns,respectively.Thelatterneedadditionalaccesstodiscourseand
information structurestolinktotheirreferentoutsidetheclause(Avrutin,2006).Linguisticprocessing
that requiresdiscourse-linkingisdifficult foragrammaticindividuals:verbmorphologywithreferenceto
the pastismoredifficult thanwithreferencetothepresent(Bastiaanseetal.,2011).Thesameholdsfor
which questionscomparedto who questionsandforpronounscomparedtoreflexives(Avrutin,2006).
These resultshavebeenreportedindependentlyfordifferentpopulationsindifferentlanguages.
The currentstudy,forthe first time,testedallconditionswithinthesamepopulation.
Aims: Wehadtwoaimswiththecurrentstudy.First,wewantedtoinvestigatewhetherdiscourse-
linking isthecommondenominatorofthedeficits intimereference, wh questions,andobjectpronouns.
Second, weaimedtocomparethecomprehensionofdiscourse-linkedelementsinpeoplewith
agrammatic and fluent aphasia.
Methods andprocedures: Threesentence-picture-matchingtaskswereadministeredto10agrammatic,
10 fluent aphasic,and10non-brain-damagedRussianspeakers(NBDs):(1)theTestforAssessing
ReferenceofTime(TART)forpresentimperfective(referencetopresent)andpastperfective(referenceto
past), (2)theWhExtractionAssessmentTool(WHEAT)for which and who subject questions,and(3)the
Reflexive-PronounTest(RePro)forreflexiveandpronominalreference.
Outcomes andresults: NBDs scoredatceilingandsignificantly higherthantheaphasicparticipants.We
found anoveralleffectofdiscourse-linkingintheTARTandWHEATfortheagrammaticspeakers,andin
all threetestsforthe fluent speakers.ScoresontheReProwereatceiling.
Conclusions: The resultsareinlinewiththepredictionthatproblemsthatindividualswithagrammatic
and fluent aphasiaexperiencewhencomprehendingsentencesthatcontainverbswithpasttime
reference, which questionwordsandpronounsarecausedbythefactthattheseelementsinvolve
discourse linking.Theeffectisnotspecific toagrammatism,althoughitmayresultfromdifferent
underlyingdisordersinagrammaticand fluent aphasia.
not allsyntacticprocessesareequallyproblematic:presenttimereference, who questions,andreflexives
can beprocessedbynarrowsyntaxaloneandarerelativelysparedcomparedtopasttimereference,
which questions,andpersonalpronouns,respectively.Thelatterneedadditionalaccesstodiscourseand
information structurestolinktotheirreferentoutsidetheclause(Avrutin,2006).Linguisticprocessing
that requiresdiscourse-linkingisdifficult foragrammaticindividuals:verbmorphologywithreferenceto
the pastismoredifficult thanwithreferencetothepresent(Bastiaanseetal.,2011).Thesameholdsfor
which questionscomparedto who questionsandforpronounscomparedtoreflexives(Avrutin,2006).
These resultshavebeenreportedindependentlyfordifferentpopulationsindifferentlanguages.
The currentstudy,forthe first time,testedallconditionswithinthesamepopulation.
Aims: Wehadtwoaimswiththecurrentstudy.First,wewantedtoinvestigatewhetherdiscourse-
linking isthecommondenominatorofthedeficits intimereference, wh questions,andobjectpronouns.
Second, weaimedtocomparethecomprehensionofdiscourse-linkedelementsinpeoplewith
agrammatic and fluent aphasia.
Methods andprocedures: Threesentence-picture-matchingtaskswereadministeredto10agrammatic,
10 fluent aphasic,and10non-brain-damagedRussianspeakers(NBDs):(1)theTestforAssessing
ReferenceofTime(TART)forpresentimperfective(referencetopresent)andpastperfective(referenceto
past), (2)theWhExtractionAssessmentTool(WHEAT)for which and who subject questions,and(3)the
Reflexive-PronounTest(RePro)forreflexiveandpronominalreference.
Outcomes andresults: NBDs scoredatceilingandsignificantly higherthantheaphasicparticipants.We
found anoveralleffectofdiscourse-linkingintheTARTandWHEATfortheagrammaticspeakers,andin
all threetestsforthe fluent speakers.ScoresontheReProwereatceiling.
Conclusions: The resultsareinlinewiththepredictionthatproblemsthatindividualswithagrammatic
and fluent aphasiaexperiencewhencomprehendingsentencesthatcontainverbswithpasttime
reference, which questionwordsandpronounsarecausedbythefactthattheseelementsinvolve
discourse linking.Theeffectisnotspecific toagrammatism,althoughitmayresultfromdifferent
underlyingdisordersinagrammaticand fluent aphasia.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 20-28 |
| Number of pages | 9 |
| Journal | Neuropsychologia |
| Volume | 57 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2014 |
Keywords
- Aphasia
- Sentence comprehension
- Discourse-linking
- Tense
- Time reference
- wh Questions
- Pronouns