Measuring sentence types and complexity of spontaneous discourse productions by Cantonese-speakers with traumatic brain injury in Guangzhou: A pilot study

Abstract

Event Abstract Back to Event Measuring sentence types and complexity of spontaneous discourse productions by Cantonese-speakers with traumatic brain injury in Guangzhou: A pilot study Michael Siu-Wai Chan1, Anthony Pak Hin Kong2* and Dustin Kai-Yan Lau1 1 The Polytechnic University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, SAR China 2 University of Central Florida, United States Introduction Previous investigations on sentence production in English-speaking individuals with traumatic brain injury (TBI) yielded mixed conclusions in their findings. While some studies suggested comparable sentence complexity between TBI and control speakers (Coelho, 2002; Liles et. al., 1989; Mentis and Prutting, 1987), others reported more syntactic and lexical errors, reduced sentence complexity (Coelho, 2005; Glosser & Deser, 1990), erroneous word order transpositions, as well as verb tense and agreement errors (Peach and Schaude, 1986) in TBI production. These contradicting findings could possibly be due to different languages being studied or different measures of sentence complexity being employed. Albeit the significant linguistic differences between Chinese and English, there is currently a lack of studies addressing the characteristics of sentence production and/or symptoms in Cantonese-speaking individuals with TBI. Aims The purposes of this study were: (1) to compare between the sentence complexity of spoken discourse produced by Cantonese speakers with TBI and matched controls; (2) to examine the different distributions of different sentence types (based on their syntactic relationships in spoken discourse) among speakers with TBI and controls; and (3) to determine the effect of language impairment on the frequency of occurrence of grammatical errors in sentences of TBI discourse. Methods Three Cantonese-speaking participants with TBI in Mainland China (Guangzhou) participated. Their mean age and years of education were 35 and 10 years, respectively. Based on the Cantonese version of the Western Aphasia Battery (Yiu, 1992), they were all diagnosed with mild expressive aphasia, with an average aphasia quotient of 90.7/100. Three control speakers with matched age-range and education background were also recruited. Language samples containing two story narratives, including “The tortoise and the hare” and “Cry wolf”, and one spontaneous speech sample describing an important event in ones’ lives were elicited from each speaker. The orthographic transcriptions were parsed using Quantitative Production Analysis adapted for Cantonese (QPA; Law, 2001) to estimate the average sentence complexity as a measure of the number of syntactic levels of all utterances across different tasks. Next, with reference to an adapted framework from the combination of works from Matthews and Yip (2013), Tang (2015), and Cheung (2007), each sentence was classified as simple or composite sentences. Distribution of different verb chains were also counted. Result and Discussion As displayed in Table 1, the TBI group tended to be lower in sentence complexity (mean of 3.35 in TBI vs. 4.33 in control speakers). The TBI discourse also contained fewer composite sentences than controls. Lower variety of types of verb chains was also observed in the TBI group as compared to the normal controls. We proposed that the more refined and linguistically-based measures used in the present study were more sensitive in identifying the reduction and/or deficits in syntactic complexity of TBI production. Interestingly, the two groups were comparable in their number of syntactic errors. Further analyses involving a larger sample size is in progress. Figure 1 Acknowledgements We would like to express our gratitude to Dr. Jie Zhu and clinicians in the Speech Therapy Department of the Guangdong Work Injury Rehabilitation Hospital (Guangzhou, China) for their help in subject recruitment and testing. References Cheung, H. N. (2007). Xianggang Yueyu yufa de yanjiu [A Grammar of Cantonese Spoken in Hong Kong]. Chinese University Press. Coelho, C. A. (2002). Story Narratives of Adults With Closed Head Injury and Non-Brain-Injured AdultsInfluence of Socioeconomic Status, Elicitation Task, and Executive Functioning. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 45(6), 1232-1248. Coelho, C. A., Grela, B., Corso, M., Gamble, A., & Feinn, R. (2005). Microlinguistic deficits in the narrative discourse of adults with traumatic brain injury. Brain Injury, 19(13), 1139-1145. Ellis, C., & Peach, R. K. (2009). Sentence planning following traumatic brain injury. NeuroRehabilitation, 24(3), 255-266. Glosser G, & Deser T. (1990). Patterns of discourse production among neurological patients with fluent language disorders. Brain and Language, 40, 67–88. Law, S.P. (2001). A quantitative analysis of Cantonese aphasic production. Journal of Psychology in Chinese Society, 2, 211-237. Liles, B. Z., Coelho, C. A., & Duffy, R. J., et al. (1989). Effects of elicitation procedures on the narratives of normal and closed head-injured adults. Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders, 54, 356–366. Matthews, S., & Yip, V. (2013). Cantonese: A comprehensive grammar. Routledge. Mentis M, & Prutting CA. (1987). Cohesion in the discourse of normal and head-injured adults. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research, 30, 583–595. Murdoch, B. E. (1990). Acquired speech and language disorders: A neuroanatomical and functional neurological approach. Peach, R.K., & Schaude, B.A. (1986). Reformulating the notion of ‘preserved’ syntax following closed head injury. Paper presented at the annual convention of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, November 1986. Saffran, E. M., Berndt, R. S., & Schwartz, M. F. (1989). The quantitative analysis of agrammatic production: Procedure and data. Brain and Language, 37, 440–479. Tang, S.W. (2015). Yueyu yufa jiangyi [Lectures on Cantonese Grammar]. The Commercial Press. Yiu, E. M. (1992). Linguistic assessment of Chinese-speaking aphasics: Development of a Cantonese aphasia battery. Journal of Neurolinguistics, 7(4), 379-424. doi:10.1016/0911-6044(92)90025-r Keywords: sentence production, Sentence complexity, Traumatic brain injury (TBI), discourse analysis, Cantonese Conference: Academy of Aphasia 55th Annual Meeting , Baltimore, United States, 5 Nov - 7 Nov, 2017. Presentation Type: poster presentation Topic: Aphasia Citation: Chan M, Kong A and Lau D (2019). Measuring sentence types and complexity of spontaneous discourse productions by Cantonese-speakers with traumatic brain injury in Guangzhou: A pilot study . Conference Abstract: Academy of Aphasia 55th Annual Meeting . doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2017.223.00084 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 14 Apr 2017; Published Online: 25 Jan 2019. * Correspondence: Prof. Anthony Pak Hin Kong, University of Central Florida, Orlando, United States, akong@hku.hk Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Michael Siu-Wai Chan Anthony Pak Hin Kong Dustin Kai-Yan Lau Google Michael Siu-Wai Chan Anthony Pak Hin Kong Dustin Kai-Yan Lau Google Scholar Michael Siu-Wai Chan Anthony Pak Hin Kong Dustin Kai-Yan Lau PubMed Michael Siu-Wai Chan Anthony Pak Hin Kong Dustin Kai-Yan Lau Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.