UG Role in Language Impairment: A Comparative Descriptive Study in an Agrammatic Aphasics

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UG Role in Language ImpairmentA Comparative
Descriptive Studyin an Agrammatic Aphasics Wh
and Yes/No Questions Formation.

• Seham A.A. Bukhari
• English Language Department, Umm Al Qura
  University
• Supervisor
• Dr.Anas Abu Mansour
• Assistant Professor of Linguistics
• 8 April 2008

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Content

• Background
• Aim and Rationales
• Approaches
• Analysis
• Findings
• Discussion
• Conclusion

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Background

• What is agrammatism?
• In Brocas aphasia or nonfluent aphasia the
  patient tends to omit grammatical morphemes. So
  this phenomenon can be described as a telegraphic
  speech.

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Background

• UG theory
• UG is a theory of linguistics that postulates
  principles of grammar shared by all languages,
  thought to be innate to humans. Regarding the
  parameters that vary from one language to another
  (Chomsky, 1965).
• The relations
• If UG is applicable to normal languages, will
  language impairment, specifically agrammatism
  contribute to our understanding of aspects of UG?
  
• Do agrammatic aphasics follow certain patterns
  that are applied by UG in their language
  impairment across languages?

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Aim

• Since UG provides an important explanation of
  language formation, in this study the researcher
  selects language impairment that is caused by
  brain damage to investigate the following
  question
• Does language impairment, specifically
  agrammatism contribute to our understanding of
  aspects of UG?

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Rationales

• Importance of the Study
• This study may provide the neurologist and other
  psycholinguistics researchers with linguistic
  solutions and systematic analyses in order to
  generalize language impairment and consider it as
  a universal phenomenon, specifically in
  agrammatism.

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Research Approaches

• The Comparative Descriptive Approach
• The Comparative Approach
• It compares more than one study and investigates
  similar phenomena from another time and place.
• The Descriptive Approach
• It attempts to examine situations in order to
  establish what is the norm or what can be
  predicted to happen again under the same
  circumstances.

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Research Approaches
Agrammatism
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Phases of the Study

• Phase (I)
• A comparison of previous studies, which are about
  speakers of Hebrew, Palestinian Arabic, and the
  result of English languages, about Wh and Yes/No
  question formation in agrammatic aphasia.
• Phase (II)
• A face to face interview in a case study, where
  data are collected during the interview by the
  researcher who focuses on Wh and Yes/No question
  formation.

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Phase I

• Previous Studies
• By referring to TPH, Friedman (1980)
  investigated Wh and Yes/No question production in
  agrammatic aphasia.
• The participants were 13 speakers of Hebrew, 2
  Palestinian Arabic speakers, and 1 English
  speaker.

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Phase II

• Case Study
• Mrs. X is a seventy-five year old Saudi female
  patient who lives in Makkah.
• In 2004
• When she was praying, she felt dizzy, drowsy,
  and then went into Coma.
• On examination, the patient was semiconscious,
  responding to painful stimuli by limbs movement
  of the left side, aphasic, hyporeflexia and
  hypotonic on the right side, and with right
  facial palsy.
• In 2005
• The patient has improved regarding aphasia and
  started to speak with mild improvement of the
  motor power of right upper limb.
• In 2006
• The patient speaks fluently, but misses some
  grammatical morphemes and words. Her motor power
  of the right limb is fully recovered.

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Analysis

• The analysis focuses on two aspects Wh and Yes/No
  question formation.
• The analysis method is the Tree Pruning
  Hypothesis (TPH). It predicts that the
  Agrammatics fail to access the highest node of
  the tree, namely CP and TP (Friedmann and
  Grodzinsky, 2000).

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Analysis
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Example English Did you eat pasta? ? you eat
pasta? Hebrew Eifo dani sam ethamafteax? ? dani
sam et hamaftex eifo? Where did Dani put the key?
? Dani put the key where? Arabic Hijjazi Fain
rahat al-hurmah? ? Roh alhormah fain? Where did
the woman go? ? Go the woman where?
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Findings

• Phase (I)
• In English both Wh and Yes/No questions are
  impaired.
• In Hebrew and Arabic Wh questions are impaired
  and Yes/No questions are spared.
• Phase (II)
• For Mrs. X
• The Wh question production is impaired.
• The Yes/No question production is spared.

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Discussion

• Main findings
• The deficit in Wh and Yes/No question formation
  in agrammatism is a structural deficit in the CP
  and TP nodes
• It is not a general problem with question
  formation as Behaviorism claims.
• XP
• Specifier X
• X
  Complement
• According to UG, the parameters are intact and
  the principles are impaired.

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Agrammatism
The Comparative Approach (comparison of 3
languages case study)
The Descriptive Approach (Interview)
TPH
UG
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Conclusion

• Agrammatic aphasics across languages follow the
  same pattern, which is explained by TPH.
• In forming Wh and Yes/No questions. The selective
  pattern of question production impairment
  accounts for the universality of UG.

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Conclusion

• The study question..
• Does language impairment, specifically
  agrammatism contribute to our understanding of
  aspects of UG?
• yes, language impairment, specifically
  agrammatism contributes to our understanding of
  aspects of UG

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