VERB RETRIEVAL AND SENTENCE PRODUCTION IN APHASIA

This paper presents a subject with a selective verb retrieval deficit. Nouns were produced more successfully than verbs in spontaneous speec h, picture naming and when naming to definition. The word class effect was not observed in comprehension tasks, reading aloud or writing. Th is indicated that it was due to a specific problem in accessing verbs' phonological representations from semantics. The second part of the p aper explores the implications of the verb deficit for sentence produc tion. Analyses of narrative speech revealed a typically agrammatic pro file, with minimal verb argument structure and few function words and inflections. Two investigations suggested that the sentence deficit wa s at least partly contingent upon the verb deficit. In the first, the subject was asked to produce a sentence with the aid of a provided nou n or verb. The noun cues were not effective in eliciting sentences, wh ereas verb cues were. The second investigation explored the effects of therapy aiming to improve verb retrieval. This therapy resulted in be tter verb retrieval and improved sentence production with those verbs. These findings suggest that an inability to access verbs' phonologica l representations can severely impair sentence formulation. Implicatio ns for models of sentence production are considered. (C) 1998 Academic Press.