Time Reference in Fluent Aphasia: Evidence from Serbian

Abstract

Cognitive representation of time, in particular time reference (TR) through verb forms, and its reflection in abnormal language have been extensively studied in nonfluent aphasia across languages. In contrast, there is currently little evidence on patterns of TR deficits in fluent aphasia. The present study investigates production and comprehension of TR through verb forms in four fluent aphasic speakers of Serbian, a Slavic language with rich verb morphology. While the data indicate a deficit similar to the one found in nonfluent aphasic speakers, a detailed error analysis reveals that the underlying deficit must be different. Whereas agrammatic speakers predominantly substituted past verb forms with present verb forms, the Serbian fluent aphasic speakers exhibited a pattern in which within-the-same-time-frame errors dominated production of non-past reference, while out-of-time-frame errors dominated production of reference to the past. Thus, the data indicate impairment in these speakers' reference to the past.