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ERIC Number: EJ1176475
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2018-Apr
Pages: 17
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1092-4388
EISSN: N/A
Lexical and Grammatical Factors in Sentence Production in Semantic Dementia: Insights from Greek
Koukoulioti, Vasiliki; Stavrakaki, Stavroula; Konstantinopoulou, Eleni; Ioannidis, Panagiotis
Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, v61 n4 p870-886 Apr 2018
Purpose: Language production in semantic dementia (SD) is characterized by a lexical-semantic deficit and largely preserved argument structure and inflection production. This study investigates (a) the effect of argument structure on verb retrieval and (b) the interrelation between inflection marking and verb retrieval in SD. Method: Seven individuals with SD and 7 healthy controls performed 2 sentence elicitation tasks. In Experiment 1, participants described the action taking place in a video. In Experiment 2, they watched the same videos preceded by a phrase prompting the production of past tense. Three verb classes were tested: (a) unergative (e.g., "to walk"), (b) unaccusative (e.g., "to fall"), and (c) transitive with 1 object (e.g., "to read a book"). Results: There was not any quantitative difference among the verb classes in Experiment 1, but error analysis hinted at difficulties related with argument structure complexity. The findings of Experiment 2 suggest no general effect of inflection on verb retrieval; nevertheless, inflection marking impeded the retrieval of verbs with complex argument structure. Large individual variation was established. Conclusions: Argument structure complexity may challenge speakers with SD. Verb retrieval and inflection marking seem to interrelate at the expense of the former. Inflection production may be affected at severe stages of the disease.
American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. 2200 Research Blvd #250, Rockville, MD 20850. Tel: 301-296-5700; Fax: 301-296-8580; e-mail: slhr@asha.org; Web site: http://jslhr.pubs.asha.org
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A