Abstract
Experimental findings from the neuropsychological study of language are used to evaluate grammatical theories. Data from tests of sentence comprehension by agrammatic aphasic patients reveal a pattern of selectivity that is used as a means for assessing competing syntactic hypotheses. In particular, it is argued that agrammatic linguistic behavior provides evidence for a transformational analysis of verbal passive. This is so because the patients failed to comprehend properly verbal passives and structures involving Wh-movement, but succeeded in tasks that required the proper comprehension of lexical passive. Grammatical theories in which such a performance pattern can be readily described — namely, theories that allow for generalizations such as Move-alpha — pass a test of psychological reality in that they are compatible with patterns of language breakdown observed following brain damage. By contrast, syntactic frameworks in which all passives are derived by lexical rules cannot account for this performance pattern without the introduction of ad hoc devices. Neurolinguistic findings are thereby shown to restrict the class of biologically feasible grammars.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Bever, Thomas: 1970, ‘The Cognitive Basis for Linguistic Structures’, in J. R. Hayes (ed.), Cognition and the Development of Language, Wiley, New York, pp. 297–352.
Bresnan, Joan (ed.): 1982, The Mental Representation of Grammatical Relations, MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass.
Caplan, David and Christine Futter: 1986, ‘Assignment of Thematic Roles by an Agrammatic Aphasic Patient’, Brain and Language 27, 117–135.
Caramazza, Alfonso and Edgar B. Zurif: 1976, ‘Dissociation of Algorithmic and Heuristic Processes in Language Comprehension: Evidence from Aphasia’, Brain and Language 3, 572–582.
Chomsky, Noam: 1981, Lectures on Government and Binding, Foris, Dordrecht.
Fabb, Nigel: 1984, Syntactic Affixation, unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, MIT.
Gazdar, Gerald, Ewan Klein, Geoffrey Pullum and Ivan Sag: 1985, Generalized Phrase Structure Grammar, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass.
Goodglass, Harold: 1968, ‘Studies in the Grammar of Aphasics’, in S. Rosenberg and J. Koplin (eds.), Developments in Aplied Linguistics Research, Macmillan and Co, New York, pp. 177–208.
Goodglass, Harold and Edith Kaplan: 1983, The Assessment of Aphasia and Related Disorders, second edition, Lea and Febiger, Philadelphia.
Grodzinsky, Yosef: 1986, ‘Language Deficits and the Theory of Syntax’, Brain and Language 27, 135–159.
Grodzinsky, Yosef: 1988, ‘Syntactic Representations in Agrammatism: The Case of Prepositions’, Language and Speech 31, 2: 115–134.
Grodzinsky, Yosef: 1989, ‘Agrammatic Comprehension of Relative Clauses’, Brain and Language 31, 480–499.
Grodzinsky, Yosef: 1990, Theoretical Perspectives on Language Deficits, MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass.
Grodzinsky, Yosef, David Finkelstein, Janet Nicol and Edgar B. Zurif: 1988, ‘Agrammatic Comprehension and the Thematic Structure of Verbs’, paper presented at the Academy of Aphasia, Montreal.
Grodzinsky, Yosef, Kenneth Wexler, Yu-Chin Chien and Susan Marakovitz: 1989, ‘The Breakdown of Binding Relations’, paper presented at the Academy of Aphasia, Sante Fe.
Jaeggli, Osvaldo: 1986, ‘Passive’, Linguistic Inquiry 17, 587–622.
Kolk, Herman and Maria van Grunsven: 1985, ‘On Parallelism in Agrammatism’, in M.-L. Kean (ed.), Agrammatism, Academic Press, New York, pp. 165–208.
Levin, Beth and Malka Rappaport: 1986, ‘The Formation of Adjectival Passive’, Linguistic Inquiry 17, 623–661.
Miceli, Gabriele, Anna Mazzucchi, Lisa Menn and Harold Goodglass: 1983, ‘Contrasting Cases of English and Italian Agrammatic Aphasics’, Brain and Language 19, 65–97.
Mohr, J. P.: 1976, ‘Broca's Area and Broca's Aphasia’, in H. Whitaker and H. A. Whitaker (eds.), Studies in Neurolinguistics, vol. I, Academic Press, New York, pp. 201–235.
Schwartz, Myrna, Eleanor Safran and Oscar Marin: 1980, ‘The Word-order Problem in Agrammatism: I. Comprehension’, Brain and Language 10, 249–262.
Shankweiler, Donald, Stephen Crain, Paul Gorrell, and B. Tuller: 1989, ‘The Reception of Languag ein Broca's Aphasia’, Language and Cognitive Processes 4, 1–34.
Siegel, Dorothy: 1973, ‘Nonsources for Unpassives’, in John Kimball (ed.), Syntax and Semantics, vol. 2, Academic Press, New York, pp. 301–317.
Wasow, Thomas: 1977, ‘Transformations and the Lexicon’, in A. Akmajian, P. Culicover and T. Wasow (eds.), Formal Syntax, Academic Press, New York, pp. 327–360
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
The preparation of this manuscript was supported by NIH grant 11408, by the Israel Institute for Psychobiology under a grant from the Charles Smith Family Foundation, and by the Bat Sheva de Rothschild Fund for the Advancement of Science and Technology. We thank Malka Rapoport for her thorough comments, and Hiram Brownell and Nachshon Meiran for their statistical advice. An earlier version of this paper was read at the 17th meeting of the North Eastern Linguistic Society, MIT, 1986.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Grodzinsky, Y., Pierce, A. & Marakovitz, S. Neuropsychological reasons for a transformational analysis of verbal passive. Nat Lang Linguist Theory 9, 431–453 (1991). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00135354
Received:
Revised:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00135354