Syntax and conversation in aphasia. A strategic restrictive use of Spanish and Catalan connector QUE by aphasic speakers

Abstract

Oral conversational data are deemed to be a relevant empirical source when it comes to formulating and supporting hypotheses about cognitive processes involved in aphasic linguistic production. With this assumption in mind, free conversational uses of the Spanish and Catalan connector QUE by fluent and non-fluent aphasic speakers are examined by contrasting them with normal speakers' (i.e. conversational partners') productions. Strictly ungrammatical uses in aphasic speakers are practically non-existent in free conversation. Nevertheless, this data permits one to characterize the aphasic production of the morpheme QUE as restrictive—to different degrees—with respect to normal production. Moreover, this restriction, selectively affecting the types of syntactic environments examined, can be considered strategic in nature: it is guided by some kind of knowledge about the administration of remnant linguistic resources.