Ck. Thompson et al., TRAINING WH-QUESTION PRODUCTION IN AGRAMMATIC APHASIA - ANALYSIS OF ARGUMENT AND ADJUNCT MOVEMENT, Brain and language, 52(1), 1996, pp. 175-228
Citations number
59
Categorie Soggetti
Language & Linguistics","Psychology, Experimental",Neurosciences
The present research utilized aspects of the Principles and Parameters
Approach (P&PA; Chomsky, 1991, 1993) in linguistic theory as well as
findings from the psycholinguistic literature as a basis for examining
sentence production in aphasic individuals. We examined the productio
n of particular wh-movement constructions-wh-questions requiring movem
ent of an argument noun phrase (i.e., who and what questions) and thos
e which require adjunct movement (i.e., when and where questions). Usi
ng a single-subject experimental treatment paradigm, subjects were seq
uentially trained to produce these wh-questions and, throughout traini
ng, generalization to untrained wh-questions relying on similar wh-mov
ement processes was tested. As well, the influence of training on aspe
cts of narrative and conversational discourse was examined. Seven agra
mmatic aphasic subjects who evinced difficulty producing (and comprehe
nding) ''complex'' sentences (e.g., passives, object relative clauses,
wh-questions)-sentences that involve movement of noun phrases (NPs) o
ut of their canonical positions, leaving behind a ''trace'' of that mo
vement or ''gap''-participated in the study. Subjects were trained to
produce wh-questions by taking them through a series of steps emphasiz
ing the lexical and syntactic properties (e.g., thematic role assignme
nt, movement processes, and proper selection of wh-morpheme) of declar
ative sentence counterparts of target sentences. Results revealed impr
oved sentence production abilities in all subjects under study in both
constrained sentence production and, importantly, in discourse tasks.
The argument/adjunct distinction was observed in the sentence product
ion recovery patterns noted in six of the seven subjects. Three of the
subjects evinced correct argument movement across trained and untrain
ed question structures when wh-questions relying on argument movement
were trained; similarly, for these subjects, training structures relyi
ng of adjunct movement resulted in improved adjunct movement. Three of
the remaining four subjects who required additional treatment to alle
viate their wh-morpheme selection deficits, too showed covariance betw
een argument and adjunct movement structures with each type of movemen
t emerging across structures in temporal sequence. We discuss these da
ta in terms of the operations necessary to produce wh-questions, the i
mportance of considering linguistic and psycholinguistic data when des
igning treatment programs for language disordered patients, and the co
ntribution that detailed recovery data can make both to understanding
the nature of sentence production deficits and to issues regarding nor
mal sentence production. (C) 1996 Academic Press, Inc.