Asyntactic thematic role assignment by Mandarin aphasics: A test of the Trace-Deletion Hypothesis and the Double Dependency Hypothesis

Abstract

This study examines the comprehension patterns of various sentence types by Mandarin-speaking aphasic patients and evaluates the validity of the predictions from the Trace-Deletion Hypothesis (TDH) and the Double Dependency Hypothesis (DDH). Like English, the canonical word order in Mandarin is SVO, but the two languages differ in that the head noun precedes the relative clause in English, but it follows the relative clause in Chinese. According to the Default Principle as stated in the TDH, the word order discrepancy will make subject relative clauses more difficult to comprehend for Mandarin agrammatics than object relative clauses, but the DDH predicts that agrammatic patients from the two languages have the same pattern of selective deficits. The results of this study support the prediction of the TDH.