Derivational morphology in agrammatic aphasia: Evidence from an oral reading task.
Item
-
Title
-
Derivational morphology in agrammatic aphasia: Evidence from an oral reading task.
-
Identifier
-
AAI3103144
-
identifier
-
3103144
-
Creator
-
Mathews, Pamela Joan.
-
Contributor
-
Adviser: Loraine K. Obler
-
Date
-
2003
-
Language
-
English
-
Publisher
-
City University of New York.
-
Subject
-
Health Sciences, Speech Pathology
-
Abstract
-
The defining characteristic of agrammatic aphasia is the disruption of inflectional morphology. By contrast, derivational morphology has generally been regarded as relatively spared. In the last twenty years, however, there has been a growing literature on how derivational morphology, too, can be disturbed in agrammatic aphasia.;Studies have focused on both inflectional and derivational morphology, and have provided substantial evidence for the dual route model of the mental representation of morphologically complex words, i.e., full-form storage, and decomposition into the stem and affix.;The present study was undertaken to investigate the extent to which derivational morphology is impaired across a group of four agrammatic speakers, to determine if aspects of derivational morphology are differentially affected, and to provide further evidence concerning the mental representation of morphologically complex words.;Four lists of monomorphemic and morphologically complex words were developed and were pseudo-randomized into twelve sets of fifty words. Comparisons were drawn between (i) monomorphemic and derived words, (ii) monomorphemic, derived and inflected words, (iii) Level I and Level II derived words, and (iv) two morphological matched cohorts, ending in a suffix of high- or low-frequency.;Four mild-to-moderate chronic agrammatic speakers read the lists aloud. Responses were transcribed, and coded for correct and error responses. Results showed that (i) Overall, derived words were substantially impaired across this group of agrammatic speakers compared with monomorphemic words; (ii) Derived and inflected words were not treated differently in this experimental comparison; (iii) Levels I and II derived words were not treated differently in terms of overall correctness or suffix errors; (iv) Words of low-frequency suffix were produced overall more successfully than words of high-frequency suffix.;Analysis of the suffix errors revealed a distinct pattern for free-stem derived words compared with bound-stem derived words. We interpret this pattern as representing a processing distinction between the two types of words, suggesting that bound-stem words are accessed both as fully-listed as well as by decomposition procedures; free-stem words are decomposed into constituent parts. Thus, results provide further evidence for a dual-route model of lexical representation for morphologically complex words.
-
Type
-
dissertation
-
Source
-
PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
-
degree
-
Ph.D.
