William O'Grady | Search PubMed

PubMed2005

A mapping theory of agrammatic comprehension deficits.

This paper offers evidence for the Isomorphic Mapping Hypothesis, which holds that individuals with agrammatic aphasia tend to have difficulty comprehending sentences in which the order of NPs is not aligned with the structure of the corresponding event. We begin by identifying a set of constructions in English and Korean for which the IMH makes predictions distinct from those of canonical order and trace-based theories of agrammatic comprehension. Then, drawing on data involving the interpretation of those patterns by English-speaking and Korean-speaking agrammatics, we argue for the conceptual and empirical superiority of the isomorphic mapping account.

Adult↗

PubMed2004

Inversion without grammar.

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Child↗

PubMed2002

Word order preferences for direct and indirect objects in children learning Korean.

Pre-school Korean children typically manifest higher comprehension rates on the 'unmarked' SOV sentences of their language than on the 'scrambled' OSV patterns. To date, however, scant attention has been paid to children's ordering preferences with respect to direct and indirect objects. The results of an act-out comprehension experiment involving 40 subjects (aged 4;0 to 7;0) show a strong, statistically significant preference for the accusative-dative order, despite evidence that the reverse order is more common in mother-to-child speech. Two hypotheses are considered, one involving the relationship between word order and grammatical relations and the other involving the relationship between word order and the types of situations denoted by the sentences in question. The results of a follow-up study involving transitive verbs with instrument arguments provide strong evidence in favour of the latter hypothesis.

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