Tutorial: an introduction to syntax

Effects of Lexical Variables on Silent Reading Comprehension in Individuals With Aphasia: Evidence From Eye Tracking

PURPOSE

Previous eye-tracking research has suggested that individuals with aphasia (IWA) do not assign syntactic structure on their first pass through a sentence during silent reading comprehension. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the time course with which lexical variables affect silent reading comprehension in IWA. Three lexical variables were investigated: word frequency, word class, and word length.

METHODS

IWA and control participants without brain damage participated in the experiment. Participants read sentences while a camera tracked their eye movements.

RESULTS

IWA showed effects of word class, word length, and word frequency that were similar to or greater than those observed in controls.

CONCLUSIONS

IWA showed sensitivity to lexical variables on the first pass through the sentence. The results are consistent with the view that IWA focus on lexical access on their first pass through a sentence and then work to build syntactic structure on subsequent passes. In addition, IWA showed very long rereading times and low skipping rates overall, which may contribute to some of the group differences in reading comprehension.

The use of subject-verb agreement and verb argument structure in monolingual and bilingual children with specific language impairment

This study investigates the use of subject-verb agreement and verb argument structure in the spoken Dutch of monolingual Dutch children with specific language impairment (SLI) and bilingual Frisian-Dutch children with SLI. Both SLI groups appeared to be less efficient in their use of subject-verb agreement and verb argument structure than the control group (consisting of monolingual typically developing Dutch children matched on mean length of utterance in morphemes) in that they showed significantly more agreement errors as well as a relation between verb agreement structure complexity and omission, a relation that the typically developing children failed to show. Furthermore, no significant differences were found between the monolingual and the bilingual SLI group. These findings indicate that subject-verb agreement and verb argument structure are both affected in SLI, but not more severely in bilinguals than in monolinguals.

The effect of syntax on reading in neglect dyslexia

Individuals with text-based neglect dyslexia omit words on the neglected side of the sentence or text, usually on the left side. This study tested whether the syntactic structure of the target sentence affects reading in this type of neglect dyslexia. Because Hebrew is read from right to left, it enables testing whether the beginning of the sentence and its syntactic properties determine if the final, leftmost, constituent is omitted or not. The participants were 7 Hebrew-speaking individuals with acquired left text-based neglect dyslexia, without syntactic impairments. Each participant read 310 sentences, in which we compared 5 types of minimal pairs of sentences that differed in the obligatoriness of the final (left) constituent. Complements were compared with adjuncts, obligatory pronouns were compared with optional resumptive pronouns, and the object of a past tense verb was compared with the object of a present tense verb, which can also be taken to be an adjective, which does not require an object. Questions that require a verb were compared with questions that can appear without a verb, and clauses that serve as sentential complements of a verb were compared with coordinated clauses, which are not required by the verb. In addition, we compared the reading of noun sequences to the reading of meaningful sentences, and assessed the neglect point in reading 2 texts. The results clearly indicated that the syntactic knowledge of the readers with neglect dyslexia modulated their sentence reading. They tended to keep on reading as long as the syntactic and lexical-syntactic requirements of the sentence had not been met. In 4 of the conditions twice as many omissions occurred when the final constituent was optional than when it was obligatory. Text reading was also guided by a search for a "happy end" that does not violate syntactic or semantic requirements. Thus, the syntactic structure of the target sentence modulates reading and neglect errors in text-based neglect dyslexia, suggesting that the best stimuli to diagnose mild text-based neglect dyslexia are sentences in which the leftmost constituent is optional, and not required by syntax. Another finding of this study is dissociation between neglect dyslexia at the text and at the word levels. Two of the participants had neglect dyslexia at the text level, manifested in omissions of words on the left side of text, without neglect dyslexia at the word level (namely, without omissions, substitutions, or additions of letters on the left side of words).

Using language sampling in clinical assessments with bilingual children: challenges and future directions

Current language tests designed to assess Spanish-English-speaking children have limited clinical accuracy and do not provide sufficient information to plan language intervention. In contrast, spontaneous language samples obtained in the two languages can help identify language impairment with higher accuracy. In this article, we describe several diagnostic indicators that can be used in language assessments based on spontaneous language samples. First, based on previous research with monolingual and bilingual English speakers, we show that a verb morphology composite measure in combination with a measure of mean length of utterance (MLU) can provide valuable diagnostic information for English development in bilingual children. Dialectal considerations are discussed. Second, we discuss the available research with bilingual Spanish speakers and show a series of procedures to be used for the analysis of Spanish samples: (a) limited MLU and proportional use of ungrammatical utterances; (b) limited grammatical accuracy on articles, verbs, and clitic pronouns; and (c) limited MLU, omission of theme arguments, and limited use of ditransitive verbs. Third, we illustrate the analysis of verb argument structure using a rubric as an assessment tool. Estimated scores on morphological and syntactic measures are expected to increase the sensitivity of clinical assessments with young bilingual children. Further research using other measures of language will be needed for older school-age children.

Health literacy and the role of the speech-language pathologist

PURPOSE

This article reviews concepts of health literacy and discusses the role of speech-language pathologists in improving the health literacy of individuals with and without communication disorders.

METHOD

A literature review was completed of health literacy definitions, concepts, and health literacy assessment and intervention studies with various populations. A literature review was also conducted regarding health literacy or related studies in the field of speech-language pathology.

CONCLUSION

There is a paucity of information available on health literacy within the field of speech-language pathology. Suggestions are offered regarding increasing health literacy research and intervention by speech-language pathologists.

Sentence comprehension in agrammatic aphasia: history and variability to clinical implications

Individuals with Broca's aphasia often present with deficits in their ability to comprehend non-canonical sentences. This has been contrastingly characterized as a systematic loss of specific grammatical abilities or as individual variability in the dynamics between processing load and resource availability. The present study investigated sentence level comprehension in participants with Broca's aphasia in an attempt to integrate these contrasting views into a clinically useful process. Two participants diagnosed with Broca's aphasia were assessed using a sentence-to-picture matching paradigm and a truth-value judgement task, across sentence constructions thought to be problematic for this population. The data demonstrate markedly different patterns of performance between participants, as well as variability within participants (e.g. by sentence type). These findings support the notion of individual performance variability in persons with aphasia. Syntactic theory was instructive for assessing sentence level comprehension, leading to a clinically relevant process of identifying treatment targets considering both performance variability and syntactic complexity for this population.

Do children with Down syndrome have difficulty with argument structure?

The language transcripts of seven children with Down syndrome (DS) and seven typically developing children with comparable mean length of utterance (MLU) levels were examined for their use of verb argument structure. The children's production of subject arguments, direct object arguments, and inappropriate use of arguments (anomalies) were compared for each group. When compared across verb category, the results of this study revealed no significant group differences for the omission of subject arguments. However, when arguments for transitive verb productions were compared, the children with DS were more likely to omit subject arguments in comparison to direct object arguments. In addition, the normal control group was more likely to use anomalous argument patterns than the children with DS. These findings suggest that syntactic difficulties that are characteristic of children with DS may delay them in overcoming the optional subject (OS) phenomena (Ingham, 1992). A greater number of anomalous arguments used by the normal children suggests an inadequate knowledge of argument structure at this stage of language development. As a result of this activity, the participant will be able to describe the relationship between syntax and semantics as it applies to the knowledge of verbs in children with Down syndrome.

The role of syntactic complexity in treatment of sentence deficits in agrammatic aphasia: the complexity account of treatment efficacy (CATE)

This experiment examined the hypothesis that training production of syntactically complex sentences results in generalization to less complex sentences that have processes in common with treated structures. Using a single subject experimental design, 4 individuals with agrammatic aphasia were trained to comprehend and produce filler-gap sentences with wh-movement, including, from least to most complex, object-extracted who-questions, object clefts, and sentences with object-relative clausal embedding. Two participants received treatment first on the least complex structure (who-questions), and 2 received treatment first on the most complex form (object-relative constructions), while untrained sentences and narrative language samples were tested for generalization. When generalization did not occur across structures, each was successively entered into treatment. Results showed no generalization across sentence types when who-questions were trained; however, as predicted, object-relative training resulted in robust generalization to both object clefts and who-questions. These findings support those derived from previous work, indicating not only that generalization occurs across structures that are linguistically related, but also that generalization is enhanced when the direction of treatment is from more complex to less complex constructions. This latter finding supports the authors' newly coined "complexity account of treatment efficacy" (CATE).

Treatment of sound errors in aphasia and apraxia of speech: Effects of phonological complexity

BACKGROUND: Recent research suggests that the complexity of treatment stimuli influences the effectiveness of treatment. However, no studies have examined the role of complexity on sound production treatment in adult individuals with sound production impairments. AIMS: This study examines effects of syllable complexity on treatment outcome in two patients with acquired sound production problems. Complexity is defined in terms of syllable structure: clusters are more complex than singletons. Using a single-subject multiple-baseline design, we address the question: Is treatment of complex syllables more effective than treatment of simple syllables? METHODS #ENTITYSTARTX00026; PROCEDURES: Two patients with aphasia and apraxia of speech were trained to produce complex or simple syllables (using modelling). Improvement was measured by percent correct on a word and nonword repetition test. OUTCOMES #ENTITYSTARTX00026; RESULTS: We found that both treatment on simple syllables and treatment on complex syllables led to improved production of simple syllables, while treatment of complex syllables also led to improvement on some complex syllables for one of the two patients. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggests that training complex items is more effective than training simple items, at least for some patients. Possible reasons for lack of stronger effects are discussed, as well as directions for future research.

The influence of argument-structure complexity on the use of auxiliary verbs by children with SLI

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the influence of argument-structure complexity on the omission of auxiliary be verbs in a group of children with specific language impairment (SLI). These children were compared to a group of younger, normally developing children matched for mean length of utterance (MLU) and a group of children matched for chronological age (CA). Using a story-completion task, the children (N = 30) were required to produce sentences of varying length and argument-structure complexity. The results of the study indicated that the children with SLI omitted more auxiliary forms than either the MLU or CA controls. In addition, both the children with SLI and the MLU controls were more likely to omit the auxiliary forms when attempting sentences with greater argument-structure complexity. These results suggest that argument-structure complexity may be a contributing factor to children's omissions of grammatical morphemes.

Cross-modal generalization effects of training noncanonical sentence comprehension and production in agrammatic aphasia

The cross-modal generalization effects of training complex sentence comprehension and complex sentence production were examined in 4 individuals with agrammatic Broca's aphasia who showed difficulty comprehending and producing complex, noncanonical sentences. Object-cleft and passive sentences were selected for treatment because the two are linguistically distinct, relying on wh-and NP movement, respectively (Chomsky, 1986). Two participants received comprehension training, and 2 received production training using linguistic specific treatment (LST). LST takes participants through a series of steps that emphasize the verb and verb argument structure, as well as the linguistic movement required to derive target sentences. A single-subject multiple-baseline design across behaviors was used to measure acquisition and generalization within and across sentence types, as well as cross-modal generalization (i.e., from comprehension to production and vice versa) and generalization to discourse. Results indicated that both treatment methods were effective for training comprehension and production of target sentences and that comprehension treatment resulted in generalization to spoken and written sentence production. Sentence production treatment generalized to written sentence production only; generalization to comprehension did not occur. Across sentence types generalization also did not occur, as predicted, and the effects of treatment on discourse were inconsistent across participants. These data are discussed with regard to models of normal sentence comprehension and production.