Comprehension of wh-questions and declarative sentences in agrammatic aphasia: the set partition hypothesis

Salis, C. and Edwards, S. (2008) Comprehension of wh-questions and declarative sentences in agrammatic aphasia: the set partition hypothesis. Journal of Neurolinguistics, 21 (5). pp. 375-399. ISSN 0911-6044 doi: 10.1016/j.jneuroling.2007.11.001

Abstract/Summary

Problematic trace-antecedent relations between deep and surface structure have been a dominant theme in sentence comprehension in agrammatism. We challenge this view and propose that the comprehension in agrammatism in declarative sentences and wh-questions stems from impaired processing in logical form. We present new data from wh-questions and declarative sentences and advance a new hypothesis which we call the set partition hypothesis. We argue that elements that signal set partition operations influence sentence comprehension while trace-antecedent relations remain intact. (C) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.