The production and comprehension of verbs with alternating transitivity by patients with non-fluent aphasia
Journal
Aphasiology
Date Issued
May 2011
DOI
10.1080/02687038.2010.542248
Abstract
Background: Recent studies revealed that aphasic speakers have difficulties with the
production of the intransitive (unaccusative) variant of verbs entering transitivity alternations.
A key point of the current interpretations of these difficulties concerns the
movement operations taking place at surface syntax, namely, the A-movement operation
(Bastiaanse & van Zonneveld, 2005; Bastiaanse, 2008; Thompson, 2003).
Aim: The present study revisits the issue of processing verbs with alternating transitivity
in non-fluent aphasia in Greek, a language with rich morphology and relatively free
word order, which lacks A-movement. In addition, in Greek, unaccusative verbs appear
with different voice morphology: One class of intransitive variants of alternating verbs
bears active morphology, another one non-active morphology and a third one can surface
with both. The presence of non-active voice has been argued to correspond to the
presence of a voice projection in syntax of these variants, while the variants that bear
active morphology are not associated with a voice projection at the level of syntax. This
study investigates the ability of non-fluent aphasic speakers to produce and comprehend
verbs entering transitivity alterations and explores the role of active vs. non-active morphology
and word order in the performance of aphasic speakers.
Methods & Procedures: We tested five non-fluent patients and fifteen control participants.
We used two tasks supported by pictures: an elicited production task and a
comprehension task. The experimental material consisted of fifteen transitive and fifteen
unaccusative verbs (marked for active, and/or non-active voice morphology) in sentence
contexts.
Outcomes & Results: The results indicated that (i) the aphasic speakers performed better
on the production and comprehension of transitives than of unaccusatives, (ii) they
showed significantly lower performance on the comprehension of unaccusatives with
active morphology than on unaccusatives with non-active morphology, and finally (iii)
they produced transitive (S)VO structures instead of the unaccusative ones.
Conclusion: We suggest, in agreement with other researchers (for example, Schwartz,
Linebarger, Saffran, & Pate, 1987) that aphasic individuals overuse a mapping strategy
that associates the theta roles of agent and theme with syntactic subject and object
respectively, as they produce transitive (S)VO structures, to a large extent, instead of unaccusatives. In addition, as they had difficulties with unaccusative verbs marked for
active voice, we suggest that they could not successfully interpret unaccusative verbs with
active voice morphology as non-agentive structures.
production of the intransitive (unaccusative) variant of verbs entering transitivity alternations.
A key point of the current interpretations of these difficulties concerns the
movement operations taking place at surface syntax, namely, the A-movement operation
(Bastiaanse & van Zonneveld, 2005; Bastiaanse, 2008; Thompson, 2003).
Aim: The present study revisits the issue of processing verbs with alternating transitivity
in non-fluent aphasia in Greek, a language with rich morphology and relatively free
word order, which lacks A-movement. In addition, in Greek, unaccusative verbs appear
with different voice morphology: One class of intransitive variants of alternating verbs
bears active morphology, another one non-active morphology and a third one can surface
with both. The presence of non-active voice has been argued to correspond to the
presence of a voice projection in syntax of these variants, while the variants that bear
active morphology are not associated with a voice projection at the level of syntax. This
study investigates the ability of non-fluent aphasic speakers to produce and comprehend
verbs entering transitivity alterations and explores the role of active vs. non-active morphology
and word order in the performance of aphasic speakers.
Methods & Procedures: We tested five non-fluent patients and fifteen control participants.
We used two tasks supported by pictures: an elicited production task and a
comprehension task. The experimental material consisted of fifteen transitive and fifteen
unaccusative verbs (marked for active, and/or non-active voice morphology) in sentence
contexts.
Outcomes & Results: The results indicated that (i) the aphasic speakers performed better
on the production and comprehension of transitives than of unaccusatives, (ii) they
showed significantly lower performance on the comprehension of unaccusatives with
active morphology than on unaccusatives with non-active morphology, and finally (iii)
they produced transitive (S)VO structures instead of the unaccusative ones.
Conclusion: We suggest, in agreement with other researchers (for example, Schwartz,
Linebarger, Saffran, & Pate, 1987) that aphasic individuals overuse a mapping strategy
that associates the theta roles of agent and theme with syntactic subject and object
respectively, as they produce transitive (S)VO structures, to a large extent, instead of unaccusatives. In addition, as they had difficulties with unaccusative verbs marked for
active voice, we suggest that they could not successfully interpret unaccusative verbs with
active voice morphology as non-agentive structures.