Towards a Characterization of Agrammatism in Ibero-Romance
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Towards a Characterization of Agrammatism in Ibero-Romance Silvia Martínez Ferreiro Doctoral Dissertation Supervisor: Prof. Anna Gavarró Algueró PhD. Program in Cognitive Science and Language Departament de Filologia Catalana Facultat de Filosofia i Lletres Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona 2009 To my grandfather, To his universe of silences, To his life with just two words. This dissertation has been prepared at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) under the supervision of Prof. Anna Gavarró Algueró (Departament de Filologia Catalana, Àrea de Lingüística General) and is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor as established by the UAB’s Escola de Doctorat i de Formació Continuada. TABLE OF CONTENTS ______________________________________________________________ Acknowledgments ................................................................................................ i. Abstract ................................................................................................................ v. I. INTRODUCTION …………………………………........……..……………. 1. 1. APHASIA AND AGRAMMATISM …………..............……….……. 6. 1.1. Aphasia …………………………………………...….…......……… 6. 1.2. Broca’s area and agrammatism ……...………..….……............….. 12. 2. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK …................................................... 16. 2.1. Truncation models ........................................................................... 17. 2.2. The Tree-Pruning Hypothesis ………………….......…........……. 21. 2.3. The Minimalist Program and Cartographical Models ..................... 25. 3. METHODOLOGY ……………………………...……….............…. 31. 3.1. Participants ...................................................................................... 34. 3.2. Procedure ......................................................................................... 39. 3.3. Statistical analysis ............................................................................ 40. II. IP-FIELD …………………………..………….....………..…………..…... 43. 1. NEGATION ……………………...……….........…...…………...…. 43. 1.1. Negation in Ibero-Romance ……………….....................…...……. 46. 1.2. Previous research in agrammatism …………...……...…...………. 52. 1.3. Experimental design: Sentential negation ....................................... 61. 1.4. Results ……………………………...…………………….....…..... 62. 1.5. Discussion …………………………...………………..…….......… 67. 2. TENSE AND AGREEMENT ……….....….......……………..…….. 70. 2.1. Verbal inflection in Ibero-Romance ................................................ 71. 2.2. Previous research in agrammatism .................................................. 74. 2.3. Experimental design: Tense and agreement .................................... 96. 2.4. Results ………………...……………...…...…………...........……. 97. 2.5. Discussion ……………………………………………........…...…. 107. 3. AUXILIARIES ................................................................................. 119. 3.1. Auxiliaries in Ibero-Romance ........................................................ 121. 3.2. Previous research in agrammatism ................................................. 124. 3.3. Results ............................................................................................ 131. 3.4. Discussion ........................................................................................ 141. 4. CLITICS ............................................................................................. 145. 4.1. Clitics in Ibero-Romance ................................................................. 150. 4.2. Previous research in agrammatism .................................................. 154. 4.3. Experimental design: Clitic production and comprehension ........... 159. 4.4. Results ............................................................................................. 162. 4.5. Discussion ........................................................................................ 170. 5. CONCLUSION .................................................................................. 173. III. CP-FIELD ……………………………………….........……………..…… 183. 1. WH- VS. Y/N QUESTION PRODUCTION ....................................... 185. 1.1. WH- question formation in Ibero-Romance ................................... 185. 1.2. Y/N- question formation in Ibero-Romance ................................... 196. 1.3. Previous research in agrammatism .................................................. 199. 1.4. Experimental design: Wh- and y/n question production and wh- question and word comprehension .................................................. 208. 1.5. Results ............................................................................................. 213. 1.6. Discussion ........................................................................................ 227. 2. EMBEDDED SENTENCE PRODUCTION .................................... 243. 2.1. Relative clauses in Ibero-Romance ................................................. 244. 2.2. Previous research in agrammatism .................................................. 247. 2.3. Experimental design: Production of relative clauses ...................... 254. 2.4. Results ............................................................................................. 256. 2.5. Discussion ....................................................................................... 260. 3. CONCLUSION ................................................................................. 262. IV. GENERAL CONCLUSIONS & FURTHER RESEARCH ................... 267. REFERENCES ................................................................................................. 279. APPENDIX I: Battery of tests ......................................................................... 305. APPENDIX II: Corpus of experimental data .............................................. 377. APPENDIX III: Corpus of control data ....................................................... 481. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ______________________________________________________________ Though writing a PhD dissertation is often thought of as a lonely task, with the passing of time I have come to appreciate how erroneous that assertion is. This is thanks to the many people who have contributed to this volume in one way or another. So while I am not very keen on name lists, I do not want to forget the faces and spaces that made it possible. First of all, I would like to thank my supervisor Anna Gavarró for her support during these years. I know it has not always been easy, which is why I am far more grateful than can be expressed in a few short words. Her rich knowledge of linguistics coupled with meticulous correction of my work of several years spared me making many errors. The final version of this dissertation undoubtedly also benefited from the comments of many other professors. I owe a particular debt to Luigi Rizzi, who not only allowed me to spend four months at the CISCL as a visiting student but also gave me the opportunity to comment on the results of my research with him in innumerable meetings and provided me with ideas, references and extremely valuable insights. I was overwhelmed with the exceptional hospitality I encountered in Siena. I am also profoundly indebted to Adriana Belletti and João Costa for the comments they provided on previous versions of this dissertation and their immediate willingness to contribute with their reports to the thankless task of fulfilling administrative requirements. I also want to express my deepest gratitude to the members of the Centre de Lingüística Teòrica of the UAB: to many of them for their comments, suggestions and advice (Josep Maria Brucart, Cedric Boeckx, Ángel Gallego, Mª Lluïsa Hernanz, Jaume Mateu, Carme Picallo, Gemma Rigau, Jaume Solà, Yurena Mª Gutierrez, Angelina Markova, Meritxell Mata, Paolo Lorusso, Xico Torres), to most of them for their support (Anna Bartra, Teresa Cabré, Teresa Espinal, Joan Mascaró), and to all of them for facilitating my work and making it possible to find a balance between working and studying. Administrative staff and computer technicians also deserve their space here: many years, many hours, many favors. Thanks a lot! I also wish to thank some of my colleagues, especially Maria Garraffa and Asaf Bachrach, for their comments on the some of the experimental tasks as well as i on several of my conference presentations over these years. Equally valuable has been the patience exhibited by Susagna Tubau and Elisabet Pladevall, who were always ready to pick up the phone to answer whatever administrative or theoretical question I might have. The Servei d’Estadística at the UAB also deserves some words of acknowledgment, and special thanks go to Anna Espinal for reviewing the statistical analysis cited throughout this volume. I also have more than pleasant memories of the time I spent with all the subjects involved in the research described in this dissertation. The experimental tasks could not have been carried out without their help. Needless to say, I will always be indebted to them for their good humor and hard work. I would also like to express my deepest gratitude to the individuals and institutions who allowed me access to these subjects. I am deeply thankful to the Associació Sant Pau de Trastorns de la Comunicació (speech disorders), the Hospital Provincial (CHOP) and Hospital de la Merced in Pontevedra and the Hospital Meixoeiro (CHUVI) and Xeral-Cíes in Vigo. Special gratitude goes to José Luis Cardona, Dr. Vendrell, Dr. Muñoz and Dr. Calderón