Roelien Bastiaanse

Verb retrieval in action naming and spontaneous speech in agrammatic and anomic aphasia

Abstract The production of verbs in an action naming test and in spontaneous speech was evaluated in 16 aphasic patients: eight agrammatics and eight anomics. Action naming was also compared to object naming. The action naming test was controlled for factors known to be relevant for verb retrieval (i.e. word frequency, instrumentality, name-relation to a noun, transitivity and argument structure) and the objects were related to the verbs and chosen to match the verbs as precisely as possible on word frequency. For both aphasic subgroups object naming was better than action naming and there was no difference between agrammatics and anomics, neither in object naming, nor in action naming. In spontaneous speech, both agrammatics and anomics differed from normal controls on ‘verb diversity’ furthermore the agrammatics were significantly worse than normal speakers (and the anomics) in verb inflection and the proportion of verbs produced without internal argument was higher than in normal speakers (and in anomi...

Sentence production with verbs of alternating transitivity in agrammatic Broca's aphasia

Abstract Bastiaanse, Koekkoek And Van Zonneveld (2003) hypothesized that individuals with Brocas aphasia have problems with sentences in which the verb and its arguments are not in their base position. The present study is meant to test this hypothesis with the help of verbs with alternating transitivity: transitive: the boy breaks the glass; intransitive or unaccusative: the glass breaks. Superficially seen, the latter sentence is less complex (subject–verb) than the first (subject–verb–object), but from a theoretical point of view, the unaccusative reading (the glass breaks) is more complex, because the theme is in subject position, which is not the base position. A production test was presented to patients with Brocas aphasia and with anomic/Wernickes aphasia, in which transitive and unaccusative sentences with the same verbs were elicited. The results show that broca patients are significantly better in producing the transitive sentences than the unaccusative ones, whereas there is no difference for the patients with anomic/wernickes aphasia. Furthermore, an error analysis reveals that the large majority of the errors made by the patients with Brocas aphasia are transitive sentences while the picture depicts the unaccusative reading. This pattern does not occur in the patients with anomic/Wernickes aphasia. The results are taken as support for the hypothesis that sentences in which the verb and its arguments are not in their base position are difficult for patients with brocas aphasia.

The impact of executive functions on verb production in patients with Parkinson's disease

A growing number of studies suggest that language problems in Parkinsons disease (PD) are a result of executive dysfunction. To test this hypothesis we compared Dutch verb production in sentence context in a group of 28 PD patients with a control group consisting of 28 healthy participants matched for age, gender and education. All subjects were assessed on both verb production in sentence context as well as on cognitive functions relevant for sentence processing. PD patients scored lower than healthy controls on the verb production ability-scale and showed a response pattern in which performance was worse (1) in base than in derived position; (2) in present than in past tense; (3) for intransitive than in transitive verbs. For the PD group the score on the verb production ability-scale correlated significantly with set-switching and working memory. These results provide support for previous research suggesting that executive dysfunctions underlie the performance of the PD patients on verb production. It is furthermore suggested that because of failing automaticity, PD patients rely more on the cortically represented executive functions. Unfortunately, due to the disturbed intimate relation between the basal ganglia and the frontal cortex, these executive functions are also dysfunctional.

Word Order and Finiteness in Dutch and English Broca's and Wernicke's Aphasia

The effect of two linguistic factors in Brocas and Wernickes aphasia was examined using Dutch and English subjects. Three tasks were used to test (1). the comprehension and (2). the construction of sentences, where verbs (in Dutch) and verb arguments (in Dutch and English) are in canonical versus non-canonical position; (3). the production of finite versus infinitive verbs. Proportions of errors as well as types of errors made by each aphasic group are similar on the sentence comprehension and sentence anagram tasks. On the verb production task the performance pattern is, again, the same, but the error types are different. The discussion focuses on how the similarities and differences across languages and across aphasia types may be interpreted with respect to the underlying deficit in Brocas and Wernickes aphasia.

Production of verbs in base position by Dutch agrammatic speakers: Inflection versus finiteness

Several hypotheses have been formulated to predict the pattern of performance on finite verbs by agrammatic speakers. The present study is focused on finite and nonfinite verbs in base-position. Three finite verb forms (third person singular in past and present tense and third person plural in present tense) and three nonfinite verb forms (infinitives in two different constructions and participles) were tested. The main results are that finite verbs are more difficult than nonfinite verbs, but both within the finite verbs and within the nonfinite verbs, the forms referring to the past (third person singular past tense and participle respectively) were more difficult than their counterparts referring to the present (third person singular present tense and infinitives). None of the hypotheses on verb forms can account for these results. Therefore, we suggest that an additional hypothesis is needed which expresses that agrammatic speakers have difficulty making reference to the past. (c) 2006 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Verb and auxiliary movement in agrammatic Broca’s aphasia

Verb production in agrammatic Brocas aphasia has repeatedly been shown to be impaired by a number of investigators. Not only is the number of verbs produced often significantly reduced, but verb inflections and auxiliaries are often omitted as well (e.g., Bastiaanse, Jonkers, & Moltmaker-Osinga, 1996; Saffran, Berndt, & Schwartz, 1989; Thompson, Shapiro, Li, &Schendel, 1994, 1997). It has been suggested that these problems are, in part, caused by the fact that finite verbs need to be moved from their base-generated position to inflectional nodes in the syntactic tree (e.g., Bastiaanse & Van Zonneveld, 1998). Others have suggested that production deficits in agrammatism can be predicted based on the position that certain structures take in the syntactic tree (Friedmann & Grodzinsky, 1997; Hagiwara, 1995). If the former theory is correct, several predictions can be made. First of all, the discrepancy between production of finite verbs in the matrix and embedded clause that has been found for Dutch (Bastiaanse & Van Zonneveld, 1998) should not be observed in English, since the word order of the matrix and embedded clause are the same in the latter language. Second, if verb movement (including movement of auxiliaries) is problematic for speakers with agrammatic aphasia, then a hierarchy in the production of auxiliaries in yes/no questions, auxiliaries, and finite verbs in declarative sentences in English would be expected, since the former has been moved and the two latter are in base-generated position. In the present paper, these hypotheses were tested in a cross-linguistic study of Dutch and English. Results showed the position in the syntactic tree does not predict deficit patterns; rather the critical factor appears to relate to whether or not verb or auxiliary movement is required.

Spontaneous speech in aphasia: a correlational study

Seventeen spontaneous speech measures and scores on a naming test, employed to characterize the expressive performance of 121 aphasics, were subjected to a factor analysis. Five factors were obtained: (1) Syntactic ability, (2) Phonological paraphasia, (3) Neologistic paraphasia, (4) Articulatory impairment, and (5) Vocabulary. Relationships of the factors to naming error types were examined in order to elucidate the nature of some of the factors. Also, the relationships of the expressive factors to auditory comprehension tests were explored, such an exploration being relevant to the issue of the overlap between expressive and receptive functions.

Developmental Foreign Accent Syndrome: Report of a New Case

This paper presents the case of a 17-year-old right-handed Belgian boy with developmental FAS and comorbid developmental apraxia of speech (DAS). Extensive neuropsychological and neurolinguistic investigations demonstrated a normal IQ but impaired planning (visuo-constructional dyspraxia). A Tc-99m-ECD SPECT revealed a significant hypoperfusion in the prefrontal and medial frontal regions, as well as in the lateral temporal regions. Hypoperfusion in the right cerebellum almost reached significance. It is hypothesized that these clinical findings support the view that FAS and DAS are related phenomena following impairment of the cerebro-cerebellar network.

Time reference through verb inflection in Turkish agrammatic aphasia

This study tested the production of tensed finite verbs and participles referring to the past and future in agrammatic speakers of Turkish. The agrammatic speakers did not make more time reference errors in tensed verbs than in participles. This is interesting because tense in general cannot therefore be the main problem, since time reference for participles lacking tense inflection is as difficult as for verbs with tense inflection. Besides that, the past tense/perfect aspect was found to be more difficult to produce for the agrammatic speakers than the future tense/imperfect aspect. None of the current theories on agrammatic deficits can explain why reference to the past/perfect aspect is more difficult than reference to future/imperfect aspect, although a similar finding was reported for Dutch by Bastiaanse [Bastiaanse, R. (2008). Production of verbs in base-position by Dutch agrammatic speakers: Inflection versus finiteness. Journal of Neurolinguistics, 21, 104-119]. We present a remoteness model of time reference to account for the data.

Lexical, morphological, and syntactic aspects of verb production in agrammatic aphasics.

Agrammatic aphasics do not exhibit a normal pattern of verb production; their spontaneous speech is said to lack verbs, and the verbs that are produced lack inflection. The current article focuses on the lexical, morphological, and syntactic aspects of verbs in spontaneous speech of a group of Dutch agrammatic speakers. Dutch is a so-called verb-second language in which the finite verb in the matrix clause is in the second position and nonfinite verbs are in the final position. The analysis shows that agrammatic speakers are sensitive to this relation; they virtually never produce finite verbs in the final clause position or nonfinite verbs in the second position. Nevertheless, they produce significantly fewer finite clauses than do non-brain-damaged speakers. The diversity of the lexical verbs in spontaneous speech is also lower than in non-brain-damaged speakers, but this is due to less variation in the finite lexical verbs. Hence, it is suggested that the problems with verbs in Dutch agrammatic spontaneous speech are restricted to finite lexical verbs. In an experiment, it was evaluated whether these problems with finite lexical verbs are caused by a morphological deficit or a syntactic deficit. The data show that a syntactic deficit is more likely; Dutch agrammatic speakers produce finite verbs in the base-generated position (i.e., in the embedded clause) significantly better than finite verbs that have been moved to the second position (i.e., in the matrix clause). From these data, the authors conclude that in Dutch, a verb-second language, agrammatic aphasics demonstrate specific problems with moved finite verbs, although they are perfectly aware of the relation between verb position and verb finiteness. This syntactic problem affects not only the proportion of finite verbs but also the diversity of the verbs and, hence, communicative contents.