5 - Syntactic and Semantic Structures in Agrammatism

Abstract

This chapter advances a hypothesis regarding the syntactic structures that are constructed and interpreted in agrammatism and relates this hypothesis to an analysis of syntactic structures constructed at a particular stage of sentence planning and interpretation. Many aspects of this proposal are outgrowths of earlier formulations of my own regarding agrammatism ( Caplan 1982 , 1983 ), and I believe the present analysis is more empirically adequate than these earlier statements. This chapter is a preliminary formulation in two respects: first, the empirical data supporting the argument presented here are still fragmentary and much empirical work needs to be done in a number of areas; and second, in a related vein, the present hypotheses is the result of a post hoc analysis of data and needs to be validated by new experimentation directed at specific claims it makes. Before considering the data regarding agrammatism and their interpretation, I briefly discuss three preliminary subjects as they pertain to agrammatism: the concept of a syndrome in aphasia; syntactic structures and their contribution to semantic readings; and the notions of ‘competence’ and ‘performance’. These topics are critical to the perspective within which the present hypothesis is formulated.