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Eye-tracking the effect of word order in sentence comprehension in aphasia: evidence from Basque, a free word order ergative language.

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Bibliographic Details
Title: Eye-tracking the effect of word order in sentence comprehension in aphasia: evidence from Basque, a free word order ergative language.
Authors: Arantzeta, Miren1, Bastiaanse, Roelien1,2, Burchert, Frank3, Wieling, Martijn2, Martinez-Zabaleta, Maite4, Laka, Itziar5
Source: Language, Cognition & Neuroscience. Dec2017, Vol. 32 Issue 10, p1320-1343. 24p. 1 Illustration, 15 Charts, 3 Graphs.
Subject Terms: *Phonological awareness, *Intelligibility of speech, *Comparative grammar, *Behavior, *Aphasia, Semantics, Eye movements, Basques, Prompts (Psychology)
Abstract: Agrammatic speakers of languages with overt grammatical case show impaired use of the morphological cues to establish theta-role relations in sentences presented in non-canonical word orders. We analysed the effect of word order on the sentence comprehension of aphasic speakers of Basque, an ergative, free word order and head-final (SOV) language. Ergative languages such as Basque establish a one-to-one mapping of the thematic role and the case marker. We collected behavioural and gaze-fixation data while agrammatic speakers performed a picture-matching task with auditorily presented sentences with different word orders. We found that people with aphasia (PWA) had difficulties in assigning theta-roles in Theme-Agent order. This result is in line with processing accounts. Contrary to previous findings, our data do not suggest a systematic delay in the integration of morphological information in the PWA group, but strong reliance on the ergative case morphology and difficulties assigning thematic roles into the determiner phrases. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]
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Database: Education Research Complete
Description
Abstract:Agrammatic speakers of languages with overt grammatical case show impaired use of the morphological cues to establish theta-role relations in sentences presented in non-canonical word orders. We analysed the effect of word order on the sentence comprehension of aphasic speakers of Basque, an ergative, free word order and head-final (SOV) language. Ergative languages such as Basque establish a one-to-one mapping of the thematic role and the case marker. We collected behavioural and gaze-fixation data while agrammatic speakers performed a picture-matching task with auditorily presented sentences with different word orders. We found that people with aphasia (PWA) had difficulties in assigning theta-roles in Theme-Agent order. This result is in line with processing accounts. Contrary to previous findings, our data do not suggest a systematic delay in the integration of morphological information in the PWA group, but strong reliance on the ergative case morphology and difficulties assigning thematic roles into the determiner phrases. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]
ISSN:23273798
DOI:10.1080/23273798.2017.1344715