Verb Inflection Research Articles

Resolving the problem of surface dyslexia in Italian through inflection of irregular verbs.

Surface dyslexia and dysgraphia are considered diagnostic features of semantic variant primary progressive aphasia (svPPA) and are useful signs in English, a language whose attributes afford numerous opportunities to observe these phenomena. This, however, is not the case in many languages, including Italian, that have high transparency between orthography and phonology, making surface reading and spelling errors scarce. This creates a problem in applying the diagnostic recommendations for svPPA in such languages. Surface dyslexia and dysgraphia are examples of 'regularization' errors in which semantic knowledge loss leads to a failure to recognize exceptions that do not follow standard rules of pronunciation. Another form of regularization involves the incorrect inflection of irregular verbs using the rules that govern regular verbs. Unlike irregularly pronounced words, Italian, as with many languages, has numerous irregular verbs. The Italian Verb Inflection Test (IVIT) was developed to test the hypothesis that svPPA would regularize irregular verbs when inflecting them into two Italian past tenses. Results confirmed that people with svPPA made a significantly greater proportion of regularization errors compared to people with typical Alzheimer's disease or logopenic variant PPA. Without recourse to the other diagnostic features of PPA subgroups, the IVIT on its own could separate svPPA from these other two groups with 70% sensitivity and ~ 80% specificity. Regularization of irregular verb inflection offers a solution to the problem of applying the surface dyslexia/dysgraphia criterion for svPPA diagnosis in Italian.

Acceleration in multilingual children: the case of French

ABSTRACT The acquisition of the null-subject property has received much attention. Languages differ as to whether they allow (pronominal) subjects to be unexpressed. French is generally assumed to be a language not allowing null-subjects, while languages like Italian and European Portuguese are treated as null-subject languages. The present study locates these language types within the null-argument hierarchy. This hierarchy “emerges” through the interaction of (non-language specific) cognitive strategies and linguistic features. In such a hierarchy, Italian and European Portuguese are less marked than French. The study of the longitudinal data of three Italian/Portuguese-French bilingual children between the age of 1;0 to 5;0 shows that bilingual children can reach the French target grammar more quickly than monolingual French-speaking children, even if they have a “weak” language. The children are accelerated with respect to (pronominal) subject realizations and target-like inflection of finite verbs. The findings indicate that bilingual children are not statistical learners, but they can rely on prior knowledge attained in their respective other, radically different, and less marked language. Consequently, educational programs with a focus on multilingualism (like pedagogical translanguaging) which aim to activate prior linguistic knowledge can be effective to compensate for disadvantages related to critical periods.

Selected Phenomena from the Arabic Dialect of the Jews of Damascus

Abstract This article presents, for the first time, a range of features in Judeo-Damascene (JD), the spoken dialect of the Jews of Damascus, that distinguish it from the common Damascene (CD) dialect of the non-Jewish communities. The article is based on recorded interviews with Damascene Jews. This Jewish dialect is distinct from the Arabic dialect spoken by the Muslim and Christian populations of Damascus not only lexically—in the use of vocabulary from Hebrew and Romance sources—but also in some features of its phonology and morphology. Distinctive forms appear in verbal inflections, pronouns, prepositions, and other morphological categories. The article also compares JD with other Jewish dialects and vernaculars in the Levant and shows some interesting links between JD and Christian Damascene.

VeLeSpa: An inflected verbal lexicon of Peninsular Spanish and a quantitative analysis of paradigmatic predictability

AbstractThis paper presents VeLeSpa, a verbal lexicon of Peninsular Spanish, which contains the full paradigms (all 63 cells) in phonological form of 6553 verbs, along with their corresponding frequencies. In this paper, the process and decisions involved in the building of the resource are presented. In addition, based on the most frequent 3000 + verbs, a quantitative analysis is conducted of morphological predictability in Spanish verbal inflection. The results and their drivers are discussed, as well as observed differences with other Romance languages and Latin.

Time reference in French-speaking people with fluent and non-fluent aphasia (part II): a cluster analysis

ABSTRACT Background Tense production is often impaired in people with aphasia (PWA). Interestingly, the literature suggests that not all tenses are affected in the same way, although the pattern of dissociation is still debated in the literature. The heterogeneity of tense production deficits in PWA might partly explain this lack of consensus in the literature. While this heterogeneity has been demonstrated by descriptive statistics or double dissociations in several studies, no study has used cluster analyses to highlight the main patterns of tense dissociation. Furthermore, the factors underlying this heterogeneity have been little explored. Aims Our study aimed to use cluster analyses on tense production performance to (1) identify the main patterns of dissociation between tenses in PWA and (2) explore the clinical (aphasia type and severity) and cognitive (executive disorders and temporality) factors that may underlie these patterns. Methods & procedures Twenty-one French-speaking participants with fluent and non-fluent aphasia completed a verb inflection production task, as well as language and cognitive tests. Cluster analyses were performed on the differences in performance between the tenses on the verb inflection production task. Generalized linear mixed models and nonparametric statistics were used to analyze the effect of tense and its interaction with the clusters, and to compare the clusters on the clinical and cognitive variables. Outcomes & results Cluster analyses revealed two main clusters, one with worse performances in the past and future than in the present (PWA_1 – 70% of the PWA), and the other with worse performances in the past and present than in the future (PWA_2 – 30%). The type and severity of aphasia, and cognitive test performance did not differ between the two clusters. On the other hand, the PWA_2 cluster had a longer time post-onset than the PWA_1 cluster. Conclusions Our results confirm the heterogeneity of verb inflection deficits in PWA. They suggest that most PWA would have difficulties with past and future tenses, questioning the presence of discourse linking in these two tenses. However, a minority of PWA, who are clinically and cognitively indistinguishable from the others, do not follow this pattern. Adopting the strategy of producing a morphologically simple tense in French – future – could explain the high performance in the future tense and the errors in substituting other tenses with the future in this subgroup. Finally, the clinical and research implications of this heterogeneity, in relation to therapies and the lack of consensus in the literature, are discussed.

Time reference in French-speaking people with fluent and non-fluent aphasia (part I): tense dissociations, task effects and cognitive predictors

ABSTRACT Background People with fluent and non-fluent aphasia frequently have time reference deficits, which could be more pronounced for the past than for the present and future tenses. However, this performance pattern (past < non-past) is not consensual and might depend on the type of task used. Furthermore, the influence of cognitive processes on time reference deficits remains little explored, as does the origin of these difficulties (e.g. pre-phonological, morpho-phonological). Aims The primary aims of the study were (1) to identify time reference deficits and (2) dissociations between tenses in French speakers with fluent and non-fluent aphasia and (3) to specify the effect of tasks on performance and tense dissociations. Secondly, our study also aimed to determine whether time reference deficits were (4) influenced by cognitive functions and (5) explained by pre-phonological or morpho-phonological deficits. Methods & procedures Twenty-one French-speaking participants with fluent and non-fluent aphasia and 21 matched control subjects performed three tasks assessing time reference (verb inflection production, verb inflection selection, and adverb selection) and five neuropsychological tests (verbal and non-verbal working memory, inhibition, flexibility, and temporality). Quantitative and qualitative analyses were conducted. Outcomes & results Participants with fluent and non-fluent aphasia had worse performances than controls on the three time-reference tasks. The performance of the participants with fluent and non-fluent aphasia was quantitatively similar but qualitatively different on the verb inflection production task (i.e. different error types). A main task effect was also found: the verb inflection production task was the only one to show worse performances in the past than in the present and future. Regarding cognitive predictors, verbal working memory and temporality were linked to the three tasks assessing time reference. In contrast, non-verbal working memory was associated only with the two selection tasks, possibly related to the mental timeline. Finally, task analysis suggested a pre-phonological (encoding of diacritic features deficit) rather than a morpho-phonological origin. Conclusions Our study is the first to replicate time reference deficit in French speakers with aphasia. It suggests that the type of task might influence the performance profiles observed and help to shed light on the origin of the difficulties. Cognitive functions that have rarely been investigated before may also influence performance. These results have important clinical implications by questioning the tasks used to assess time reference. They also underline the importance of identifying the origin of difficulties in proposing targeted treatment.

Limited input and the acquisition of Finnish: The evolution of a child speaker in a multilingual environment

Aims and Objectives/Research Question: This is a case study of a toddler acquiring Finnish in a trilingual (Finnish–Spanish–English) setting. Despite the apparent ease of the child’s acquisition of Finnish, the pressure of the majority language (English) suppresses the use of the acquired minority language. Is it feasible to expect an early-childhood minority language to be maintained at the level of production? Design/Methodology: Video-recordings were collected in domestic settings, mostly with the Finnish-speaking mother in interactions with the child, who was between the ages of 3;6 and 4;6. The approach follows loosely the principles of interactional sociolinguistics. Data and Analysis: The data were collected in 2008, when the child was 3 years old, and the follow-up data 8 months later, when the child was four. Samples of this corpus are analyzed in detail for the emerging target-like Finnish case endings and verbal inflections, as well as for deviations from adult Finland Finnish. The mother’s strategies of maximizing the effects of the limited input are also discussed. Findings/Conclusions: Even though the input the child receives is limited, his acquisition of Finnish morphosyntax follows monolingual patterns and shows overgeneralizations typical of monolingual Finnish children’s language. Some transfer from the contact with English and Spanish languages is present. The question of ultimate attainment in a heritage-language situation is addressed. Originality: The study is rare, as it documents the rapid transition from the child’s well acquired minority language to English, the majority language, in the matter of months. Significance: This article confirms the vulnerability of childhood bilingualism: even a few months between the two longitudinal datasets show a sharp decline in the child’s output in the heritage Finnish, but the dichotomy between “maintenance” versus “loss” is challenged because the decline in output does not necessarily extend to the loss of comprehension.

Cross-Linguistic and Multicultural Considerations in Evaluating Bilingual Adults With Aphasia.

The current study delineated a clinical and theoretical framework that clinicians and researchers can use to guide the assessment of bilingual aphasia at morphosyntactic, lexical-semantic, and phonological levels of language processing. This tutorial outlines cross-linguistic and multicultural considerations that should be addressed in evaluating bilingual adults with aphasia (BWAs). At the morphosyntactic level, we presented three features that should be taken into account when evaluating linguistic symptoms in languages considering whether they are typologically similar or dissimilar: word order, pro(noun)-drop, and morphological inflections of verbs. We suggest that clinicians need to conduct additional error analyses that reflect typological differences in syntactic templates, argument-deletion phenomena, and morphological inflections to better understand linguistic characteristics of impairments arising from the interactions of the two languages that may differ in many ways. At the lexical-semantic level, we addressed three cross-linguistic features that may impact naming performance in BWAs: cognates, lexical frequency, and semantic typicality. The presence of cognates between the two languages can lead to differential interpretations of naming performance. In addition, the same lexical items may exhibit varying lexical frequency and typicality across languages due to cultural and linguistic differences. We suggest that clinicians should thoroughly prepare the testing items considering the linguistic distance. Finally, we emphasized differences in segmental and suprasegmental features of phonology that could contribute to cross-linguistic phenomena during assessment of two or more languages. This cross-linguistic assessment framework contributes to a better understanding of linguistic impairments and communication difficulties experienced by BWAs. This framework can be utilized in current clinical practice to facilitate culturally and linguistically appropriate assessment and treatment approaches for BWAs.

Schwa realisation in verbal inflection in two dialogue registers of German spontaneous speech

Abstract Word-final schwa in German inflectional suffixes shows varying realisations in spontaneous speech – from full realisations with varying duration to no realisation. While previous research has identified numerous social, distributional, and grammatical factors influencing the variation of phonetic variables in general, it remains unclear how fine-grained functional differences in different registers specifically affect schwa realisation. In this corpus-based study, we compare schwa realisation in two dialogue registers of German spontaneous speech – free conversation and task-based dialogues – which differ only in their communicative goal and therefore have different functional requirements. We find that schwa is rarely realised, though slightly but significantly more often in free conversation than in task-based dialogue. Other factors also promoting schwa realisation across both situations are less frequent verbs and sequences, and IP-final position.

Morphological and Inhibitory Skills in Monolingual and Bilingual Children With and Without Developmental Language Disorder.

This study examined the language and nonverbal inhibitory control skills of Italian monolingual and bilingual typically developing (TD) preschoolers with Italian as their second language and of age-matched monolingual and bilingual peers with developmental language disorder (DLD). Four groups of preschoolers were enrolled: 30 TD Italian monolinguals, 24 TD bilinguals, 19 Italian monolinguals with DLD, and 19 bilinguals with DLD. All children were assessed in Italian on vocabulary, receptive morphosyntax, and morphological markers for DLD in the Italian language (i.e., third-person verb inflections, definite articles, third-person direct-object clitic pronouns, simple prepositions) and nonverbal inhibitory control skills. Group performance was compared using a series of one-way analyses of variance. Monolingual and bilingual children with DLD achieved significantly lower performance in all language measures compared to both TD monolingual and bilingual children. However, TD bilinguals, although comprehensively showing better language skills than monolinguals with DLD, achieved a performance closer to that of monolinguals with DLD but significantly higher than that of bilinguals with DLD. Both TD monolinguals and bilinguals showed better results than both DLD groups in inhibitory control tasks, particularly in the interference suppression task. This study provides a picture of language and inhibitory control characteristics of children with various language profiles and adds to the literature on potential markers of DLD among bilingual children. These results suggest that the assessment of nonlinguistic markers, which are associated with language impairment, could be a useful approach to better specify the diagnosis of DLD and reduce cases of misdiagnosis in the context of bilingualism.

Neural Dynamics of Processing Inflectional Morphology: An fMRI Study on Korean Inflected Verbs.

The present study aimed to elucidate the neural mechanisms underpinning the visual recognition of morphologically complex verbs in Korean, a morphologically rich, agglutinative language with inherent polymorphemic characteristics. In an fMRI experiment with a lexical decision paradigm, we investigated whether verb inflection types (base, regular, and irregular) are processed through separate mechanisms or a single system. Furthermore, we explored the semantic influence in processing inflectional morphology by manipulating the semantic ambiguity (homonymous vs. unambiguous) of inflected verbs. The results showed equivalent activation levels in the left inferior frontal gyrus for both regular and irregular verbs, challenging the dichotomy between the two. Graded effects of verb regularity were observed in the occipitotemporal regions, with regular inflections eliciting increased activation in the fusiform and lingual gyri. In the middle occipital gyrus, homonyms showed decreased activation relative to that of unambiguous words, specifically for base and irregular forms. Furthermore, the angular gyrus exhibited significant modulation with all verb types, indicating a semantic influence during morphological processing. These findings support single-system theories and the connectionist framework, challenging the assumptions of purely orthographic morphological decomposition and dual-mechanism accounts. Furthermore, they provide evidence for a semantic influence during morphological processing, with differential reliance on semantic activation for regular and irregular inflections.

How many inflectional forms does a Somali verb have?

Abstract The Somali verb is traditionally presented as having a quite large number of inflectional paradigms with, e.g., special negative forms and several kinds of subordinate clause forms. The complexity of traditional descriptions tends to overshadow important generalisations that would otherwise reflect a relative simplicity of the Somali verb system. The most important reasons for the abundance of paradigms are that forms, periphrastic constructions and their functions are not systematically differentiated, but also that the tonal accent and case marking are treated as parts of the inflection, instead of phrasal marking of syntactic or pragmatic functions. The aim of this article is therefore to suggest a simplified analysis and to define the minimal set of synthetic forms and analytical constructions that are necessary for the description of Somali verb inflection as well as the basic syntactic functions of these forms and constructions.

Features of Quranic Text Decording as a Partly Dead Arabic Language

Purpose of the study. The purpose of the study is to systematize the meanings of words and cases of modification of grammatical categories of names and verbs based on the decipherment of the Koranic text. Materials and research methods. The sentences of the Koranic text were analyzed using a continuous sampling method within the framework of suras and verses. The research material is the text of the Koran. It should be noted that the earliest texts of the Qur'an in Arabic available in the world date back to 1400 years. The texts of letters with dots and vowels (haraka) date back 1200 years, they are fully consistent with the modern texts of the Qur'an distributed throughout the world in books and on the Internet (الكريم القرآن). The objects of the study were the meanings of words, changing the person of the verb, changing the tense or mood of the verb, changing the case of names, replacing one morphological structure with another, using a present tense verb in the imperative mood and vice versa, replacing an active participle with a passive participle and vice versa, modification of verb inflections. Based on scientific interest in the illogically composed ancient text, an attempt was made to systematize the meanings of words and cases of modification of grammatical categories throughout the text. Research results. It is noted that modern Arabic only partially corresponds to the language of the Quranic text of a thousand years ago. The reason for this is that the modern understanding of the meanings of many Quranic words is not systematized, that is, the same word in the text of the Quran can have several meanings, which are revealed not only from the context, but also from traditions about the messenger Muhammad (Hadis). It was revealed that in the works of researchers it is believed that the language of the text of the Quran is complex due to the fact that it was created on the basis of rhyme, incomprehensible logic of the text, or this text is encrypted. Because of this, it is generally accepted that the Quranic text is encrypted, the full decryption of which is known only to its author. The meanings of words and cases of modification of grammatical categories of names and verbs found in the text of the Koran are systematized. Conclusions. The text of the Koran is voluminous, which is why it is not possible to manipulate the meanings of words and inflections of the verbs of the text, since they are found in sentences with different meanings. It is concluded that contextual analysis is the most promising and optimal method for studying the text of the Koran, its translation, as well as systematization of linguistic phenomena, in particular, the meanings of words and modifications of grammatical categories.

Null subject pronouns in Papiá Kristang (Malacca Creole Portuguese)

This paper investigates variation in the subject pronoun expression (SPE) in Papi&amp;aacute; Kristang (Malacca Creole Portuguese), a language without verb inflection. Previous accounts of Kristang (Baxter, 1988, 2012b; Hancock, 1969, 1973; Knowlton, 1964; R&amp;ecirc;go, 1942) present the language as predominantly displaying overt subject pronouns. However, the overall null subject pronoun rate in the oral corpus contemplated is substantial, registering a frequency of 45.7% (input pr. 0.32). As such, the paper focusses on the distribution of null subject pronouns and the constraints directing that distribution. The study considers the effects of priming, structural location, verb semantic class, and tense-mood-aspect (TMA), and addresses the effect of the individual speaker. It is found that while null subject pronoun use in Papi&amp;aacute; Kristang resembles, with minor differences, many attributes of this mechanism in other languages, it displays one notable trait: TMA particles favor null subject pronoun use. Extralinguistic constraints on SPE within the Papi&amp;aacute; Kristang speech community are seen to concern more the characteristics of individual speakers, and clusters of individuals, rather than predictors based on a pan-community age and gender classification.

The Verbal System of Baritle Neo-Aramaic

Abstract This paper presents a comprehensive study of verbal inflection in the Neo-Aramaic dialect of Baritle (northern Iraq). Similar to other Semitic languages, Baritle uses ‘root and pattern’ morphology and verb roots are generally triliteral. Whereas the core structures of the Baritle verb system align with those found in other North-Eastern Neo-Aramaic languages, Baritle exhibits distinctive variations in several noteworthy aspects. This study of the verbal inflection of Baritle identifies the inflections by number and type. It finds that the verb in Baritle has different functional categories indicating tense, aspect, and mood. It also finds that the verb has various bound pronominals representing the grammatical categories of person, number, and gender of its arguments. This paper documents an endangered language and contributes to the typology of the grammar of natural languages.

Subject–verb agreement: Three experiments on Catalan

This study delves into the syntactic parsing abilities of children and infants exposed to Catalan as their first language. Focusing first on ages 3 to 6, we conducted two sentence-picture matching tasks. In experiment 1, 3 to 4-year-old children failed in identifying singular third-person subjects within null-subject sentences, although they performed above chance in all other scenarios, including plural third-person subjects and sentences with overt full DP subjects. This is reminiscent of the results of Pérez-Leroux for Spanish. In experiment 2, with the same design but involving numeral distractors, children’s performance was above chance level across all conditions from age 3 to 4. Then, in experiment 3, we moved to a younger age range with the help of eye-tracking techniques. The findings revealed that infants at 22 months had the ability to parse subject–verb agreement in sentences with third-person null subjects, and at 19 months there was evidence of parsing for third-person plural null subjects. These findings are inconsistent with the perception of children grappling with syntactic agreement computation. We argue that instances of underperformance in subject–verb agreement parsing identified in the literature often stem from task-related and pragmatic issues rather than core syntactic delay. If so, the putative asymmetry between early production of verbal inflection and late comprehension disappears; rather, the results suggest early establishment of matching operations and mastery of language-specific agreement properties before production starts.

How revolution and gender dynamics affected Nepali 3rd-person honorification from the 1990s to the 2010s: A corpus analysis

One way to express honorification, by which speakers index relations of respect, is through varying pronouns and verb inflection. This phenomenon has been studied in European languages with binary 2nd-person pronouns (the T-V model). Past research finds that these systems tend to level with social change. This study explores Nepali, which also uses pronouns and verb-inflections. Nepali has 2nd and 3rd-person honorification, with 4 and 3 different levels respectively. The study employs a corpus analysis to investigate Nepali 3rd-person honorification with regards to the fall of monarchy (1996–2010). The paper finds that this social change correlates to 3rd-person honor leveling.

Associated motion, associated posture and imperfective aspect in Tacana (Amazonian Bolivia)

Abstract This paper is the first detailed description of the exceptionally rich subsystem of verbal inflections that express imperfective aspect in Tacana, an endangered and underdescribed language from the Takanan family. The unusually high degree of elaboration of this system, which includes nine members in paradigmatic opposition, is achieved by co-expressing imperfective aspect with spatial meanings taken from two distinct categories: associated motion (with five values: ‘going’, ‘coming’, ‘going back’, ‘coming back’, ‘wandering’) and what I will call “associated posture” (with three values: ‘standing’, ‘lying/bending’, ‘hanging’). The ninth member is a default imperfective marker that does not carry any spatial meaning. The paper challenges linguistic theories that consider grammatical(izable) concepts as belonging to a strictly limited range of notional domains from which motion and posture are excluded. Additionally, the paper provides strong support for a new comparative concept of “associated posture” in linguistics.

The Impact of Verb Inflectional Distance on Morphological Awareness in Arabic Diglossia: Insights From a Longitudinal Study (Kindergarten to Grade 3).

The main aim of the current study was to examine the longitudinal impact of verb inflectional distance on morphological awareness among Arabic-speaking children from kindergarten (K) to third grade. The study also investigated the impact of testing children in two language varieties, Spoken Palestinian dialect (SPD) and Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), on the development of morphological awareness. Sixty-two children were followed longitudinally at three time points: K, Grade 1 (G1), and Grade 3 (G3). Each child completed two parallel orally administered inflectional awareness pseudoverb tasks in the spoken and in the standard variety at each grade. The items were classified by form and function into two main distance levels: low-diglossic and high-diglossic, representing the closest and the farthest distance between SPD and MSA morphemes, respectively. The findings indicated that morphological awareness was more difficult for high-diglossic morphemes than for low-diglossic ones. Moreover, the findings point to different paths in the developmental trajectory of verb inflectional awareness by distance levels and language variety: In SPD, the difference in children's awareness between low-diglossic morphemes and high-diglossic morphemes decreased across grades and disappeared in G3, whereas, in MSA, this difference significantly increased from K to G1 and G3. These findings demonstrate the substantial impact of verb inflectional distance on morphological awareness development before and during the initial process of learning to read. Results are discussed within the context of linguistic distance and the development of metalinguistic processing skills with implications for assessment and intervention.

Universal and Language-Specific Connected Speech Characteristics of Bilingual Speakers With Alzheimer's Disease: Insights From Case Studies of Structurally Distinct Languages.

Connected speech analysis has been effectively utilized for the diagnosis and disease monitoring of individuals with Alzheimer's disease (AD). Existing research has been conducted mostly in monolingual English speakers with a noticeable lack of evidence from bilinguals and non-English speakers, particularly in non-European languages. Using a case study approach, we characterized connected speech profiles of two Bengali-English bilingual speakers with AD to determine the universal features of language impairments in both languages, identify language-specific differences between the languages, and explore language impairment characteristics of the participants with AD in relation to their bilingual language experience. Participants included two Bengali-English bilingual speakers with AD and a group of age-, gender-, education-, and language-matched neurologically healthy controls. Connected speech samples were collected in first language (L1; Bengali) and second language (L2; English) using a novel storytelling task (i.e., Frog, Where Are You?). These samples were analyzed using an augmented quantitative production analysis and correct information unit analyses for productivity, fluency, syntactic and morphosyntactic features, and lexical and semantic characteristics. Irrespective of the language, AD impacted speech productivity (speech rate and fluency) and semantic characteristics in both languages. Unique language-specific differences were noted on syntactic measures (reduced sentence length in Bengali), lexical distribution (fewer pronouns and absence of reduplication in Bengali), and inflectional properties (no difficulties with noun or verb inflections in Bengali). Among the two participants with AD, the individual who showed lower proficiency and usage in L2 (English) demonstrated reduced syntactic complexity and morphosyntactic richness in English. Evidence from these case studies suggests that language impairment features in AD are not universal across languages, particularly in comparison to impairments typically associated with language breakdowns in English. This study underscores the importance of establishing connected speech profiles in AD for non-English-speaking populations, especially for structurally different languages. This would in turn lead to the development of language-specific markers that can facilitate early detection of language deterioration and aid in improving diagnosis of AD in individuals belonging to underserved linguistically diverse populations. https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.25412458.