Finite verbs in agrammatism

Abstract:
Introduction The production of finite verbs is difficult for both agrammatic aphasics and young children. In Dutch, the finite verb appears in different positions in the matrix and embedded clause. It is generally assumed that the canonical word order in Dutch is subject - object - verb, and that there is a rule, Verb Second (V2) that moves the finite verb to second position in the matrix clause (1), but not in the embedded clause (2):

(1) Dutch ... dat Jan een sigaret rookt

Lit. translation ... that John a cigarette smokes

If the problems in both populations are morphological in nature, one expects to find no difference between the two conditions. If the problems are syntactic in nature, one expects finite verbs in V2-position in the matrix to be more difficult than finite verbs in the base-generated position in the embedded clause. If one expects a more general processing problem, finite verbs in the embedded clauses will be more difficult, as this sentence type is linguistically more complex.

Methods
Subjects: Six agrammatic Brocas aphasics and ten young children (age 3-4), all native speakers of Dutch, participated in this study. Materials: The subjects were presented with two pictures and were asked to complete a sentence. Two examples are:

Condition 1: target = finite (moved) verb-object:
Tester:
Dit is de man die de tomaat snijdt en dit is de man die het brood snijdt. Dus deze man snijdt de tomaat en deze man ...................... [Patient: snijdt het brood]
Tester: This is the man who the tomato cuts and this is the man who the bread cuts. So, this man cuts the tomato and this man ................. [Patient: cuts the bread]

Condition 2: target = object-finite verb
Tester:
Deze man snijdt de tomaat en deze man snijdt het brood. Dus dit is de man die de tomaat snijdt en dit is de man die ...........
[Patient: het brood snijdt]
Tester: This man cuts the tomato and this man cuts the bread. So, this is the man who the tomato cuts and this is the man who
............ [Patient: the bread cuts]

There were 15 sentences in each condition.

Results and discussion
For the agrammatic patients the raw scores were compared; as not all children finished the test, proportional scores were compared nonparametrically. Completing a matrix clause was more difficult than completing an embedded clause, both for the agrammatics (t=-2.79, df=5, p<0.05) and for the children (z=-2.023, p<0.05). These findings suggest that the problems with the production of finite verbs are syntactic in origin: both agrammatics and children are able to produce finite verbs, as long as they are in their base-generated position. It is movement of the verb that causes the errors.

The error patterns differ: agrammatics often produce the embedded (underlying) word order in the main clause, whereas children produce a dummy finite verb. The conclusion of this experiment is: While agrammatic aphasics and children share the same problem failing to raise the finite verb overtly, they choose different strategies to overcome this problem.