Canonical features in the inflectional morphology of Spanish-speaking individuals with agrammatic speech

A preliminary comparison of verb tense production in Spanish speakers with expressive restrictions

“…It is possible that some or all factors that enhance acquisition (e.g. names of basic objects are frequently used and common words are often shorter and easier to articulate) may similarly promote word retrieval and production in situations of linguistic stress; essentially, complex linguistic forms involving considerable grammaticalized distinctions in their bound morphology would be dispreferred in contexts of linguistic limitations (Silva-Corvalán, 1991;Nickels and Howard, 1995;Nickels, 1997;Centeno, 2007Centeno, , 2011Centeno and Cairns, 2010). The interplay among the above factors still remains to be specified (see Centeno and Cairns, 2010, for discussion).…”

“…Just as semantic basicness, habitual input patterns, communicative intent and word length may be critical acquisitional determinants that facilitate the use of certain linguistic elements in the early, rudimentary expressions of monolingual and bilingual children (Slobin, 1997;Almgren and Idiazabal, 2001;Ellis, 2002). Similar factors, including semantic transparency, repeated communicative use and simple syllabic structures, have been associated with the ease of expressive deployment in adult monolinguals and bilinguals with aphasia and adult bilinguals experiencing L1 loss who, like children acquiring language, produce morphologically simple utterances (Silva-Corvalán, 1991;Centeno, 2007Centeno, , 2011Centeno and Cairns, 2010). In fact, the prominent interaction involving word frequency, age of acquisition and word length has encouraged some authors to propose commonalities between children acquiring words and speakers with restricted language struggling to produce them.…”

“…This comparative analysis is preliminary as it provides initial grounds for future, systematic examination of these three speaker groups using comparable tasks and stimuli. Based on the notion that frequent conversational language forms are resistant to dissolution and are favoured in situations of linguistic stress (Givón, 1979;McGregor and Johnson, 1997;Slobin, 1997;Centeno, 2007;Wray, 2008;Centeno and Cairns, 2010), we predicted that those verb tenses frequently used in typical conversational discourse (i.e. present and preterite) will be preferred by all three speaker groups in their oral expression relative to conversationally infrequent tenses.…”

“…Interestingly, routine, frequently used linguistic forms, conforming to the canonical (simplest) structure of a word (e.g. trochees [words with strong-weak stress patterns] and simple verb forms), may similarly be used as template or default expressive strategies by children with expressive limitations (McGregor and Johnson, 1997) or by persons with aphasia (Libben, 1990;Centeno, 2007).…”

“…In situations of linguistic limitations, such as children with expressive delays, bilinguals with first language (L1) attrition (language loss) and individuals with aphasia (language impairments secondary to neurological damage), high-frequency linguistic items (i.e. nouns, verb tenses, verb inflections and syllabic structures) are resistant to dissolution and are preferred in oral expression (Howes, 1964;Miceli and Caramazza, 1988;Silva-Corvalán, 1991;McGregor and Johnson, 1997;Centeno and Obler, 2001;Cuetos, Aguado, Izura, and Ellis, 2002;Faroqi-Shah and Thompson, 2004;Centeno, 2007Centeno, , 2011Centeno and Cairns, 2010).…”