The phonology-morphosyntax interface: Affixed words in agrammatism

In three experiments with nondysarthric agrammatics, we explored the associ ation between phonology and morphosyntax. (1) Contrasting phonological and nonphonological factors on inflectional-af fix production of English verbs across three tasks in eight agrammatics, lo nger stem-syllabic length and stem-final-CC status resulted in poorer affix -production. (2) Studying verb inflections in six agrammatic Spanish-speakers, affix-len gth and affix-stress correlated with poorer repetition, as did low affix fr equency. (3) Four English-speaking agrammatics read aloud and repeated derived words varying in syllable-length and stem-stress reassignment; both contributed independently to word-production difficulty. Phonological complexity of affixes and stems appears to reduce resources fo r morphological processing in nondysarthric agrammatics. (C) 1999 Academic Press.