Syntactical knowledge in a case of agrammatism: evidence from transcoding Roman and Arabic numerals

The ability of an aphasic subject with agrammatism in both comprehension and production to transcribe quantities from Roman numerals to Arabic and the reverse was investigated. Systematic errors in the transcoding processes were observed that could not be accounted for by the peculiarities of the two ideographic coding systems or by difficulties with direct transcoding rules. The results are discussed in the framework of the current debate on preserved/impaired hierarchical syntactical knowledge of agrammatic subjects. The findings paralleled the results of previous studies on the transcoding skills of agrammatics from/to alphabetic numerals to/from digital forms. In the case of this particular patient, it is therefore tentatively concluded in favor of preserved syntactical knowledge.