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Functional categories related to verb inflection are not differentially impaired in Greek aphasia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 January 2015

ATHANASSIOS PROTOPAPAS ,
SPYRIDOULA CHEIMARIOU ,
ALEXANDRA ECONOMOU ,
MARIA KAKAVOULIA  and
SPYRIDOULA VARLOKOSTA
ATHANASSIOS PROTOPAPAS*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy & History of Science, University of Athens, Greece
SPYRIDOULA CHEIMARIOU
Affiliation:
Graduate Program in Basic and Applied Cognitive Science, University of Athens, Greece
ALEXANDRA ECONOMOU
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Athens, Greece
MARIA KAKAVOULIA
Affiliation:
Department of Media, Communication, and Culture, Panteion University, Athens, Greece
SPYRIDOULA VARLOKOSTA
Affiliation:
Department of Linguistics, Faculty of Philology, University of Athens, Greece
*
†Address for correspondence: Athanassios Protopapas, MITHE, Ano Ilissia University Campus, 15771 Zografos, Greece; tel: +30 210 727 5540; fax: +30 210 727 5530; e-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

Previous research in Greek aphasia has indicated that functional categories related to verb inflection are differentially impacted, with Aspect most severely affected, Agreement least affected, and Tense occupying an intermediate position. However, research materials were not controlled for overall length or position of the verb within the sentence, confounding functional category with processing load. Using balanced materials, here we tested ten persons with aphasia and ten matched control participants on grammaticality judgment and sentence completion in three functional categories (agreement, tense, and aspect) using ten verbs spanning a range of familiarity. Production results indicated no difference in errors of either lexeme or inflectional morpheme selection. In grammaticality judgment acceptance of incorrect sentences was lower for Agreement but this pattern was mirrored in the control group as well. The results provide no basis to support a specific linguistic deficit in the representation of functional categories in Greek persons with aphasia.

Keywords

aphasiaGreekfunctional categoriesverbprocessing
Type
Research Article
Information
Language and Cognition , Volume 8 , Issue 1 , March 2016 , pp. 124 - 141
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Copyright
Copyright © UK Cognitive Linguistics Association 2015 

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