Processing of complex sentences in a case of aphasia in Indonesian: thematic vs. linear strategies

Abstract

The comprehension of HS, an Indonesian-speaking man with non-fluent aphasia, was investigated using an act-out task. HS was tested on VP-conjoined and center-embedded constructions in Indonesian that contained either two active verbs or two passive verbs, an active verb in the first clause and a passive verb in the second clause, or vice versa. Another type of center-embedded construction contained an object-preposed verb in the embedded clause and either an active or passive verb in the matrix clause. HS enacted the first clause accurately on all sentence types, yet he consistently predicated the second verb of the NP with the role of agent in the first clause. This strategy resulted in appropriate enactments of sentences with an active verb in the first clause, but it led to ungrammatical interpretations of sentences whose first clause contained a passive or object-preposed verb, since in these constructions the subject of the second verb is the NP with the role of theme in the first clause. HS's response pattern supports a new computational model, the Thematic Prominence Model, which posits that in thematically oriented, free word order languages like Indonesian, the thematic prominence of arguments is more important for predication than their linear positions.