This study examined the postulate that training
production of syntactically complex sentences results in
generalization to less complex sentences that have processes
in common with treated structures. Three agrammatic aphasic
patients were trained to produce wh-movement structures,
object clefts and/or object extracted who-questions,
while generalization between these structures was tested.
One NP-movement structure, passive sentences, also was
tested for control purposes. Wh-movement occurs
from the direct object position to specifier position
in the complementizer phrase [SPEC, CP] for both
wh-movement structures. In who-questions
movement occurs in the matrix sentence, whereas, in object
clefts movement occurs within an embedded relative clause,
rendering them the most complex. Results showed robust
generalization effects from object clefts to matrix who-question
for 1 participant (D.L.); however, no generalization was
noted from who-questions to object clefts for
another (F.P.), and 1 participant (C.H.) showed acquisition
of who-questions, but not object clefts, during
the baseline condition without direct treatment. As expected,
none of the participants showed improved production of
passives. These findings supported those derived from our
previous studies, indicating that generalization is enhanced
not only when target structures are related along dimensions
articulated by linguistic theory, but also when the direction
of treatment is from more to less complex structures. The
present findings also support proposals that projections
of higher levels in the syntactic treatment are dependent
on successful projection of lower levels. For our participants,
training movement within CP in a lower (embedded) clause
resulted in their ability to project to CP at higher levels.
(JINS, 1998, 4, 661–674.)
