Comprehension Of Wh-questions Research Articles

Involvement of the anterior insula and frontal operculum during wh-question comprehension of wh-in-situ Korean language.

In this research, we employed functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine the neurological basis for understanding wh-questions in wh-in-situ languages such as Korean, where wh-elements maintain their original positions instead of moving explicitly within the sentence. Our hypothesis centered on the role of the salience and attention network in comprehending wh-questions in wh-in-situ languages, such as the discernment of wh-elements, the demarcation between interrogative types, and the allocation of cognitive resources towards essential constituents vis-à-vis subordinate elements in order to capture the speaker's communicative intent. We explored subject and object wh-questions and scrambled wh-questions, contrasting them with yes/no questions in Korean. Increased activation was observed in the left anterior insula and bilateral frontal operculum, irrespective of the wh-position or scrambling of wh-element. These results suggest the interaction between the salience and attentional system and the syntactic linguistic system, particularly the left anterior insula and bilateral frontal operculum, in comprehending wh-questions in wh-in-situ languages.

Comprehension of wh-questions among Jordanian children with autism spectrum disorder and specific language impairment

This study investigates the comprehension of wh-questions among Jordanian Arabic-speaking children by comparing both (subject and object) “which” and “who” questions. The sample consisted of 45 Jordanian children: 15 with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), 15 with specific developmental language impairment (SDLI) and 15 typically developing (TD) children aged between 6 and 8 years. To achieve the objectives of this study, a binary task consisting of pictures with two-figure selection and pictures with three-figure selection was used. To analyze the data, a one-way repeated measures ANOVA was used to examine the comprehension of wh-questions among the three groups. The findings revealed that the ASD and SDLI groups performed better in subject wh-questions compared to object wh-questions. Moreover, the study also found that “which” questions constituted a problem for both ASD and SDLI Jordanian children. In addition, earlier grammatical competence acquired by children with ASD and SDLI (i.e., word order) guides their later wh-question comprehension. ASD and SDLI children showed impairment in answering subject and object questions. Meanwhile, the TD children showed better performance in who and which questions, although they exhibited difficulty in understanding object questions compared to subject questions. The conclusions indicate that the SDLI group performed better than the ASD group in terms of the number of correct answers and comprehension of wh-questions, while The ASD group performed better in the three-figures tasks over the two-figure tasks, in contrast to the children in the other groups, who performed better in the two-figure tasks.

A subject advantage in covert dependencies: The case ofwh‐question comprehension in French Sign Language

AbstractStudies on sentence processing have shown that, as with all A‐bar dependencies, content questions involvingwh movement display a subject advantage. Very little is known, however, aboutwh‐in‐situ questions. The aim of this article is to fill this gap and explore whether a subject advantage can be found inwh‐in‐situ questions. We report the results of a sentence‐to‐picture matching task using in‐situwh questions in French Sign Language. Three adult populations with different ages of exposure to sign language were studied. Results show that comprehension ofwh‐in‐situ questions in French Sign Language does display a subject advantage. We argue that this is relevant for the analysis ofwh in situ, supporting a covert‐movement analysis against alternatives involving some form of (unselective) binding. Moreover, comparison of our three populations shows that delayed exposure to language has an impact on the comprehension ofwh questions, confirming that early language deprivation affects language competence in adulthood.

Validity and reliability of the Persian version of the WH-Question comprehension test in children With autism

Questions form essential components of everyday speech; therefore, it is appropriate to evaluate children with autism to understand what they are asking during the daily conversation. A proper tool is required to assess questions formed through interrogative pronouns (what are commonly known as Wh-questions). The present study investigates the validity and reliability of the WH-Question comprehension test in children with autism. A sample of 52 neurotypical children were recruited from nursery and primary schools, and a sample of 28 children with autism were recruited from different centers for children with autism. The WH-Comprehension test was translated into Persian according to the international test commission (ITC) guideline. The reliability of the test was determined by test-retest and Cronbach’s alpha approach. The face validity of the Persian version of the “WH-Comprehension test” was confirmed. The CVR for the test was equal to 0.85%, and the CVI was equal to 0.89%. Furthermore, the Intraclass Correlation Coefficient (ICC) for the total score was equal to 0.95, and Cronbach’s Alpha Coefficient was calculated as 0.92. The results indicate that the translated WH-Comprehension test has acceptable validity and reliability within the sampled Persian groups and can be a helpful research tool.

Comprehension of wh-questions and relative clauses in Greek speaking individuals with Alzheimer’s disease

Στην έρeυνα eξeτάζeται η κατανόηση δομών μeτακίνησης σe 14 eλληνόφωνους ομιλητές μe Νόσο Αλτσχάιμeρ (ΝΑ) και 16 υγιeίς ηλικιωμένους. Οι ασθeνeίς μe ΝΑ παρουσίασαν χeιρότeρη eπίδοση από τους υγιeίς ηλικιωμένους σe όλeς τις δομές, eνώ eντοπίστηκe eπιλeκτική ασυμμeτρία ανάμeσα σe δομές υποκeιμένου και δομές αντικeιμένου, eύρημα που υποδeικνύeι ότι η κανονικότητα στη σeιρά των όρων αποτeλeί έναν από τους παράγοντeς που eπηρeάζeι την eπίδοση των ασθeνών στην eπeξeργασία της πρότασης. Η υψηλή συσχέτιση ανάμeσα στις eπιδόσeις των ασθeνών μe ΝΑ στις δομές αντικeιμένου και σe έργα eργαζόμeνης μνήμης υποδeικνύeι την eπίδραση της eργαζόμeνης μνήμης στη συντακτική eπeξeργασία.

Wh-Questions are understood before polar-questions: Evidence from English, German, and Chinese.

In this paper we consider the order of emergence of comprehension of wh-questions and polar-questions. We argue that considerations of complexity and input favour the earlier emergence of polar questions; on the other hand, if one assumes that question understanding emerges as a consequence of interactive learning this favours (certain) wh-questions, as well as a small subclass of polar questions. We offer corpus evidence from the Providence corpus that (a certain class of) wh-questions are in fact understood earlier than the polar-questions. We test this observation using elicitation studies on German and Chinese speaking children. Our results confirm the finding from the corpus study and are in line with an interactive learning perspective for the emergence of understanding of questions.

Verbal short-term memory and sentence comprehension in German children and adolescents with Down syndrome: Beware of the task

In individuals with Down syndrome (DS) deficits in verbal short-term memory (VSTM) and deficits in sentence comprehension co-occur, suggesting that deficits in VSTM might be causal for the deficits in sentence comprehension. The present study aims to explore the presumed relationship between VSTM and sentence comprehension in individuals with DS by specifically targeting the influence of task demands. The authors assessed VSTM skills in 18 German-speaking children/adolescents with DS by a nonword repetition (NWR) test and elicited data from three different tasks on the comprehension of complex sentence structures: two sentence-picture-matching tasks (TROG-D and a passive test) and one picture-pointing task on object wh-questions. Whereas performance in NWR yielded a significant degree of prediction for scores obtained in the TROG-D and in passive comprehension, no significant degree of prediction was found for NWR and object wh-question comprehension. Moreover, implicational scaling analyses indicated that mental-age adequate performance in sentence comprehension did not imply adequate performance in NWR. Research is needed that specifies the relation between memory systems and sentence comprehension while considering the influence of task demands.

Syntactic development in early foreign language learning: Effects of L1 transfer, input, and individual factors

AbstractThis study explores parallels and differences in the comprehension ofwh-questions and relative clauses between early foreign-language (FL) learners and monolingual children. We test for (a) effects of syntactic first-language (L1) transfer, (b) the impact of input on syntactic development, and (c) the impact of individual differences on early FL syntactic development. We compare the results to findings in child second language (L2) naturalistic acquisition and adult FL acquisition. Following work on adult FL acquisition, we carried out a picture-based interpretation task with 243 child FL learners in fourth grade at different regular, partial, and high-immersion schools in Germany plus 68 monolingual English children aged 5 to 8 years as controls. The child FL learners display a strong subject-first preference but do not appear to use the L1 syntax in comprehension. Input differences across different schools affect overall accuracy, with students at high-immersion FL schools catching up to monolingual performance within 4 years of learning. Finally, phonological awareness is implicated in both early FL learning and naturalistic child L2 development. These findings suggest that early FL development resembles child L2 acquisition in speed and effects of individual factors, yet is different from adult FL acquisition due to the absence of L1 transfer effects.

Comprehension of wh-questions in Turkish–German bilinguals with aphasia: A dual-case study

ABSTRACTThe aim of our study was to examine the extent to which linguistic approaches to sentence comprehension deficits in aphasia can account for differential impairment patterns in the comprehension of wh-questions in bilingual persons with aphasia (PWA). We investigated the comprehension of subject and object wh-questions in both Turkish, a wh-in-situ language, and German, a wh-fronting language, in two bilingual PWA using a sentence-to-picture matching task. Both PWA showed differential impairment patterns in their two languages. SK, an early bilingual PWA, had particular difficulty comprehending subject which-questions in Turkish but performed normal across all conditions in German. CT, a late bilingual PWA, performed more poorly for object which-questions in German than in all other conditions, whilst in Turkish his accuracy was at chance level across all conditions. We conclude that the observed patterns of selective cross-linguistic impairments cannot solely be attributed either to difficulty with wh-movement or to problems with the integration of discourse-level information. Instead our results suggest that differences between our PWA’s individual bilingualism profiles (e.g. onset of bilingualism, premorbid language dominance) considerably affected the nature and extent of their impairments.

Wh-Questions, Universal Statements and Free Choice Inferences in Child Mandarin.

This study investigated 5-year-old Mandarin-speaking children's comprehension of wh-questions, universal statements and free choice inferences. Previous research has found that Mandarin-speaking children assign a universal interpretation to sentences with a wh-word (e.g., shei 'who') followed by the adverbial quantifier dou 'all' (Zhou in Appl Psycholinguist 36:411-435, 2013). Children also compute free choice inferences in sentences that contain a modal verb in addition to a wh-word and dou (Zhou, in: Nakayama, Su, Huang (eds.) Studies in Chinese and Japanese language acquisition: in honour of Stephen Crain. John Benjamins Publishing Company, Amsterdam, pp 223-235, 2017). The present study used a Question-Statement Task to assess children's interpretation of sentences containing shei + dou, both with and without the modal verb beiyunxu 'was allowed to', as well as the contrast between sentences with shei + dou, which are statements for adults, versus ones with dou + shei, which are wh-questions for adults. The 5-year-old Mandarin-speaking child participants exhibited adult-like linguistic knowledge of the semantics and pragmatics of wh-words, the adverbial quantifier dou, and the deontic modal verb beiyunxu.

Predicting the sources of impaired wh-question comprehension in non-fluent aphasia: A cross-linguistic machine learning study on Turkish and German

ABSTRACTThis study investigates the comprehension of wh-questions in individuals with aphasia (IWA) speaking Turkish, a non-wh-movement language, and German, a wh-movement language. We examined six German-speaking and 11 Turkish-speaking IWA using picture-pointing tasks. Findings from our experiments show that the Turkish IWA responded more accurately to both object who and object which questions than to subject questions, while the German IWA performed better for subject which questions than in all other conditions. Using random forest models, a machine learning technique used in tree-structured classification, on the individual data revealed that both the Turkish and German IWA’s response accuracy is largely predicted by the presence of overt and unambiguous case marking. We discuss our results with regard to different theoretical approaches to the comprehension of wh-questions in aphasia.

Production and comprehension of Frenchwh-questions by children with autism spectrum disorder: A comparative study with specific language impairment

ABSTRACTThe nature of structural language difficulties in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) was explored in a comparative study with specific language impairment (SLI) through investigation of the frequently reported ASD weakness in receptive skills relative to expressive skills. Twenty French-speaking children with ASD aged 6 to 12 were compared to age-matched children with SLI on production and comprehension ofwh-questions. The two groups displayed similar effects of the complexity of the differentwh-strategies. In the ASD group (as in the SLI group), these effects were not greater in comprehension compared to production; moreover, nonverbal ability (which varied from normal to impaired) was not related to language performance. Observed ASD-SLI differences are argued to largely be due to ASD pragmatic deficits, rather than to a qualitative difference in structural language skills.

Acquisition of who-question comprehension in German children with hearing loss

For children with sensorineural hearing loss the ability to understand wh-questions might be particularly challenging because they often have only restricted access to spoken language input during optimal periods of language acquisition. In previous research it has been suggested that this restricted input during critical stages in language acquisition might lead to syntactic deficits that persist into adolescence. In this study we want to pursue this issue by investigating the comprehension of wh-questions in German children with bilateral sensorineural hearing loss. We report results of a who-question comprehension task in a group of 21 3- to 4-year-old German hard-of-hearing children compared to a group of age-matched children with normal hearing. The group data and individual performance patterns suggest that the syntactic comprehension difficulties observed in some, but not all, of the children with hearing loss reflect a delay in the acquisition of who-question comprehension rather than a persistent syntactic deficit. Follow-up data elicited from a subgroup of children confirm this supposition.

Investigating the Grammatical and Pragmatic Origins of Wh-Questions in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders.

Compared to typically developing children, children with autism (ASD) show delayed production of wh-questions. It is currently controversial the degree to which such deficits derive from social-pragmatic requirements and/or because these are complex grammatical structures. The current study employed the intermodal preferential looking (IPL) paradigm, which reduces social-pragmatic demands. The IPL paradigm can help distinguish these proposals, as successful comprehension promotes the “pragmatics-origins” argument whereas comprehension difficulties would implicate a “grammatical-origins” argument. Additionally, we tested both the linguistic and social explanations by assessing the contributions of children's early grammatical knowledge (i.e., SVO word order) and their social-pragmatic scores on the Vineland to their later wh-question comprehension. Fourteen children with ASD and 17 TD children, matched on language level, were visited in their homes at 4-month intervals. Comprehension of wh-questions and SVO word order were tested via IPL: the wh-question video showed a costumed horse and bird serving as agents or patients of familiar transitive actions. During the test trials, they were displayed side by side with directing audios (e.g., “What did the horse tickle?”, “What hugged the bird?”, “Where is the horse/bird?”). Children's eye movements were coded offline; the DV was their percent looking to the named item during test. To show comprehension, children should look longer at the named item during a where-question than during a subject-wh or object-wh question. Results indicated that TD children comprehended both subject and object wh-questions at 32 months of age. Comprehension of object-wh questions emerged chronologically later in children with ASD compared to their TD peers, but at similar levels of language. Moreover, performance on word order and social-pragmatic scores independently predicted both groups' later performance on wh-question comprehension. Our findings indicate that both grammar and social-pragmatics are implicated in the comprehension of wh-questions. The “grammatical-origins” argument is supported because the ASD group did not reveal earlier and stable comprehension of wh-questions; furthermore, their performance on SVO word order predicted their later success in linguistic processing of wh-questions. The “pragmatic-origins” argument is also supported because children's earlier socialization and communication scores strongly predicted their successful performance on wh-question comprehension.

Technology-Based Shared Story Reading for Students With Autism Who Are English-Language Learners

Demonstrating comprehension of text is a complex skill that is an area of difficulty for many students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Shared story reading is an intervention that has a history of effectiveness in teaching literacy skills to students with extensive support needs. This study used a multiple probe across participants design to evaluate the effects of shared story reading using e-texts and embedded prompting on vocabulary and reading comprehension of grade-aligned narrative texts by elementary students with ASD who were also English-language learners. Outcomes indicate shared story reading with the embedded technological supports was effective for teaching comprehension of WH questions as well as identification of WH rules and definitions. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.

Comprehension of wh-questions in Turkish-German bilingual speakers with fluent and non-fluent aphasia: a multiple case study

Comprehension of wh-questions in Turkish-German bilingual speakers with fluent and non-fluent aphasia: a multiple case study

On the nature of the subject–object asymmetry in wh-question comprehension in aphasia: evidence from eye tracking

Background: Individuals with aphasia (IWA) show deficits in comprehending object-extracted declaratives while comprehension of subject-extracted structures is relatively preserved. It is a matter of debate whether this subject–object asymmetry also arises for comprehension of wh-questions. Successful comprehension of wh-questions critically entails correct resolution of a filler–gap dependency. Most previous studies have used only offline accuracy measures to investigate wh-question comprehension in aphasia. Online studies exploring syntactic processing in real time are needed in order to draw inferences about gap-filling abilities in IWA and to identify the point of breakdown in sentence comprehension.Aims: This study aimed at investigating processing of subject and object who-questions in German-speaking IWA and in a group of controls by combining an offline and online method. We further aimed to explore the impact of case-marking cues on processing of wh-questions.Methods & Procedures: Applying a variant of the visual world eye-tracking paradigm, we measured participants’ eye movements while they performed the same offline task, which is frequently used to assess comprehension of declaratives (sentence–picture matching).Outcomes & Results: Concerning online processing of who-questions in controls, we found anticipation of the most likely post-verbal theta-role immediately after processing the case-marked wh-pronoun in both subject and object questions. In addition, we observed an unexpected advantage of object over subject questions in terms of processing time. The offline results for IWA revealed that there were three heterogeneous patterns: (a) symmetrical comprehension with equal impairments for both question types, (b) asymmetrical performance with better comprehension of subject than object who-questions, and (c) a reversed asymmetry with better comprehension of object as compared to subject questions. For online processing of both types of who-questions, IWA showed retained abilities in postulating the gap and in associating the filler with this gap, although they were slower as compared to controls. Moreover, similarly to controls, they anticipated the most likely post-verbal theta-role.Conclusions: For controls, the findings provide evidence for rapid resolution of the filler–gap dependency and incremental processing of case-marking cues, reflected in early prediction of upcoming syntactic structure. We attribute faster processing of object questions to faster alignment of the anticipated element with a semantically more salient character. For IWA, the online data provide evidence for retained predictive abilities in processing of filler–gap dependencies in wh-questions, but prediction was delayed. This is most likely attributed to delayed integration of case-marking cues.

Developments in the acquisition of Wh-interrogatives in Cypriot Greek

This cross-sectional study investigates the acquisition of the interpretation of syntactic and semantic aspects ofwh-questions by Cypriot Greek-speaking children aged 4 to 9 years. Two experimental tools were employed, a question–picture-matching task examining the comprehension of D-linked and non-D-linked questions for subject and object, and a question-after-picture task examining the comprehension of the notion of exhaustivity in single and multiplewh-questions. The results from these experiments are interpreted in light of current theoretical advances and cross-linguistic comparisons. The apparent discrepancies found in the development of Greek Cypriot children’s comprehension ofwh-questions and exhaustivity are put in perspective with their particular linguistic environment – diglossia, in which children grow up with two varieties, Cypriot Greek and Standard Modern Greek. Keywords: bilectalism; D(iscourse)-linking; first language acquisition; multiple wh-questions; single wh-questions

The role of maternal input in the development of wh-question comprehension in autism and typical development

Social deficits have been implicated in the language delays and deficits of children with autism (ASD); thus, the extent to which these children use language input in social contexts similarly to typically developing (TD) children is unknown. The current study investigated how caregiver input influenced the development of wh-question comprehension in TD children and language-matched preschoolers with ASD. Children were visited at four-month intervals over 1.5 years; mother-child play sessions at visits 1-2 were coded for maternal wh-question use. At visits 3-5 children watched videos in the Intermodal Preferential Looking paradigm, to assess their comprehension of subject and object wh-questions. Mothers' use of wh-questions with verbs and complex wh-questions positively predicted wh-question comprehension in the TD group; in contrast, mothers' use of wh-questions with 'be' as the main verb negatively predicted wh-question comprehension in the ASD group. Thus, TD children and children with ASD appear to use their linguistic input differently.

Wh-questions and relative clauses in Greek agrammatism: Evidence from comprehension and production

Background: Cross-linguistic studies on the production and comprehension of wh-questions and relative clauses, have revealed selective deficits in agrammatism with better performance observed in (a) subject questions and relative clauses compared to object ones; (b) object non-referential who questions compared to object referential questions; and (c) object what questions compared to object who questions. These selective deficits have been discussed within several neurolinguistic accounts (i.e., D-Linking Hypothesis, Derived Order Problem Hypothesis, and Relativised Minimality), which make different predictions. Limited research on wh-questions and relative clauses has been conducted in Greek agrammatism with inconclusive results, leaving open the question of which linguistic factors affect the agrammatic performance and which account best explains the attested patterns.Aims: The aim of the present study is twofold: (a) to investigate the role of three linguistic factors (syntactic function, referentiality, and φ-features) in the production and comprehension of wh-questions and relative clauses in six agrammatic Greek-speaking participants; and (b) to examine which neurolinguistic account can explain the observed patterns.Methods and Procedures: Two elicitation tasks (one for wh-questions and one for relative clauses) and two picture-pointing tasks (one for wh-questions and one for relative clauses) were used. All tasks targeted the following structures: referential and non-referential (who/what) questions, half with subject and half with object extraction, and relative clauses, half with subject and half with object dependencies.Outcomes and Results: Referentiality had a greater impact οn the production and comprehension of wh-questions compared to the other two linguistic factors under investigation, i.e., syntactic function and φ-feature assignment. Syntactic function did not affect the production or comprehension of relative clauses given that no subject/object dissociations were attested.Conclusion: With respect to wh-questions, the patterns observed in our data can be accounted for within the D-Linking Ηypothesis. The lack of subject/object dissociations attested in relative clauses is attributed to the case mismatch between the head of the relative clause and the relativisation site, and to the high proportion of complementiser omission observed in these structures.