Introduction to Linguistics X Agrammatism

to A recap of last week Linguistics Introduction Finite-state machines b a MAJOR PROBLEM: lack of memory Phrase Structure Grammar Cannot capture nicely… Transformations Surface structure Deep structure transformations maps to semantics Maps to Phonology Syntactic structure

to Transformations Linguistics Introduction Syntactic structure Surface structure Deep structure transformations maps to Semantics maps to Phonology (speech) Syntactic structure ב. מה סיגל ביקשה מרוני שתקטוף ____? א. סיגל ביקשה מרוני שתקטוף בננה ג. דנה סיפרה שסיגל ביקשה מרוני שתקטוף בננה ד. מה דנה סיפרה שסיגל ביקשה מרוני שתקטוף ____? ה. דנה סיפרה את הסיפור שסיגל ביקשה מרוני שתקטוף בננה ו. * מה דנה סיפרה את הסיפור שסיגל ביקשה מרוני שתקטוף ____? ה. השיחה שלך עם יוסי עצבנה את דני ו. * עם יוסי השיחה שלך ____ עצבנה את דני א. דני דיבר עם יוסי ב. עם יוסי דני דיבר _____ ג. ליאת אמרה שדני דיבר עם יוסי ד. עם יוסי ליאת אמרה שדני דיבר ____

to Wh-movement Linguistics Introduction NP VP S N V PP P NP VP S N V מה דן שם על השולחן? Dan sam praxim al ha-ʃulxan Dan sam praxim al ha - ʃulxan NP VP S Det N V PP P Dan sam ma al ha-ʃulxan Dan sam ma al ha - ʃulxan NP VP S Det N V PP P Deep structure ma Dan sam ti al ha-ʃulxan? mai Dan sam ti al ha - ʃulxan NP VP S Det N V PP P CP comp Surface structure

Introduction to Linguistics The X-bar theory

Wh-movement (with X-bar scheme) Introduction to Linguistics Wh-movement (with X-bar scheme) mai Dan sam ti al ha - ʃulxan IP C’ I’ NP PP CP comp VP V’ V P’ P

to Functional categories Linguistics Introduction Tense phrase Agreement phrase Lexical categories Functional

to Back to aphasiology Linguistics Introduction 1885 2016 Fluency Comprehension Repetition YES NO (Anomia) Conduction Transcortical sensory Wernicke’s Broca’s motor Global mixed The theory of aphasia was inspired by Wernicke and Lichtheim’s model..

to Back to aphasiology Linguistics Introduction Problems with the early accounts of aphasia: • The dimensions of description and diagnosis are modalities of performance (production/comprehension/repetition) • The evaluation of behavior is subjective: scoring is based on a good/poor scale The new approach (80’s) • Controlled experiments In several linguistic levels (syntactic, semantic etc.) • Quantify errors, the dependent measure, allowing for objective tests

to Comprehension in Broca’s aphasia Linguistics Introduction (1) The ball that the boy is kicking is red Above chance (2) The cat that the dog is chasing is black chance Grodzinsky, 2008 (3) The girl is drying the woman (4) The girli who the woman is drying ti Above chance chance (5) The cat that chased the dog was very big (6) The cati that the dog chased ti was very big

to Agrammatism Linguistics Introduction • Evidence in recent years, suggests that the picture of loss of grammar in agrammatism is incorrect, and that the deficit is actually finer grained • Some syntactic abilities were found to be intact, while some other structures were found to be differentially impaired in different languages following the same lesion • Studying the selectivity of the impairment allows testing and deciding competing models for representation of the syntactic structures that are impaired

Introduction to Linguistics Syntactic framework

Verb inflection in agrammatism Introduction to Linguistics Verb inflection in agrammatism 1) Completion task In the tense condition, the missing verb differed from the supplied verb in tense only: in the agreement condition the missing verb differed from the existing verb in one agreement feature only: 2) Repetition task

Verb inflection in agrammatism Introduction to Linguistics Verb inflection in agrammatism Results: agreement tense a clear dissociation has been found between two types of verb inflection: While tense was severely impaired, agreement was relatively intact both in Hebrew and in Arabic Conclusions: Not all functional categories are impaired in agrammatic production! As TP is situated higher than AgrP on the syntactic tree, we might suggest that higher nodes are harder for agrammatics to access

Question production in agrammatism Introduction to Linguistics Question production in agrammatism מירי מציירת מה 1) Spontaneous speech analysis 2) Question repetition task 3) Elicitation task

Question production in agrammatism Introduction to Linguistics Question production in agrammatism Results: A severe impairment in Wh-question production across all tasks

Question production in agrammatism Introduction to Linguistics Question production in agrammatism Conclusions: Again, dissociation is found between Wh questions, which require the highest nodes, and are therefore impaired, and yes/no questions, which are produced without the high nodes, and are thus spared. A completely different pattern is expected (and found) in languages in which yes/no questions do require the high nodes (like English, and Dutch) Do you like pasta? .."you like pasta?" Yes/no questions instead of Wh questions Wh-in-situ

Embedded sentences in agrammatism Introduction to Linguistics Embedded sentences in agrammatism The cat that [chased the dog] was very big The cati that [the dog chased] ti was very bigi Subject relative clause Object relative clause Grodzinsky, 2008 No movement Movement שעבוד לפועל NO MOVEMENT זיקת נושא זיקת מושא MOVEMENT ti i

Embedded sentences in agrammatism Introduction to Linguistics Embedded sentences in agrammatism 1) Spontaneous speech analysis Only 5% of the sentences produced by agrammatics were embedded (60% in healthy controls) 2) Embedded sentence repetition task Production difficulties of embedded sentences are not due to transformations, but rather to a structure which require a high node, and the use of a complementizer Production difficulties of embedded sentences are not due to sentence length

Embedded sentences in agrammatism Introduction to Linguistics Embedded sentences in agrammatism 3) Relative clause elicitation task the failure in relative clauses was not due to lack of comprehension of the task relative clause Control

Embedded sentences in agrammatism Introduction to Linguistics Embedded sentences in agrammatism Another interesting type of response that appeared in the repetition and elicitation tasks in Hebrew, was the use of reduced relative instead of a full relative זו הילדה הרוכבת על אופניים זו הילדה שרוכבת על אופניים Do not require a high node (no CP/TP) Require the highest node (CP) Once again, the tree pruning hypothesis is confirmed: The impaired structures are those that involve the highest nodes of the syntactic tree, while the embedded structures that do not include these nodes are intact.

Verb transformation in agrammatism Introduction to Linguistics Verb transformation in agrammatism 1) Sentence repetition task The verb “lands” in the highest node (CP) An interesting connection was found between tense errors and the ability to move the verb to a higher node. Tense error were produced only when the sentence did not include a verb transformation. However, in cases where a patient was able to repeat the sentence with the verb transformation correctly, the verb was also correctly inflected.

Tree pruning hypothesis Introduction to Linguistics Tree pruning hypothesis Severe patients intact agreement, impaired tense, and impaired Wh questions and CP embeddings Mild patients tense and agreement are relatively intact, but Wh questions and CP embeddings are impaired

Tree pruning hypothesis Introduction to Linguistics Tree pruning hypothesis Severe patients Mild patients This difference in severity is easily captured by the height of the deficit on the tree. The severe patients are impaired both in TP and in CP; the mild patients are only impaired higher up, in CP.