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Related Experiment Videos

Structural prominence hypothesis and Chinese aphasic sentence comprehension.

S P Law1

  • 1Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China.splaw@hkucc.hku.hk

Brain and Language
|August 22, 2000
PubMed
Summary

The Structural Prominence Hypothesis (SPH) may not explain how aphasic patients comprehend sentences. Chinese aphasics tend to rely on word order, not structural prominence, when processing complex grammatical structures.

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Area of Science:

  • Linguistics
  • Neurolinguistics
  • Psycholinguistics

Background:

  • The Structural Prominence Hypothesis (SPH) suggests structural prominence guides sentence comprehension.
  • SPH is claimed to be empirically superior to linear strategies and supported by cross-linguistic data.
  • Previous research has not fully evaluated SPH against specific patient populations and linguistic structures.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To evaluate the Structural Prominence Hypothesis (SPH) using thematic-role-reversal comprehension data from Chinese aphasics.
  • To compare the predictive power of SPH against linear strategies in Mandarin Chinese and Cantonese.
  • To investigate comprehension of Chinese relativized constructions where linear position and structural prominence diverge.

Main Methods:

  • Analysis of thematic-role-reversal comprehension data from Chinese aphasic patients.

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  • Focus on comprehension of Chinese relativized constructions, specifically where linear and structural cues differ.
  • Examination of performance patterns from three existing studies on Chinese aphasia (Su & Law, 1993; Law & Leung, 1998a, 1998b).

    • Main Results:

    • Chinese aphasics demonstrated a tendency to utilize heuristics based on the linear order of lexical NPs.
    • Patients did not prioritize structural prominence over linear order in their comprehension strategies.
    • The observed strategy did not consistently involve reference to verb position.

    Conclusions:

    • Findings suggest that Chinese aphasics' comprehension strategies may favor linear order heuristics over structural prominence.
    • The Structural Prominence Hypothesis (SPH) may not adequately account for the comprehension patterns observed in this patient group.
    • Further research is needed to understand the interplay of linear and structural cues in aphasic sentence processing across languages.