Comprehension And Production Of Wh-questions In Non-fluent Aphasia

Syntax is the most central component of the language system,and syntactic disorders are a common problem in aphasia,and there is a certain language dependence in the specific manifestations of the disorder.Most of the current research,theories,and hypotheses on syntactic disorders are based on other language systems,and there is a relative lack of those for Chinese aphasia.In addition,due to the specificity of syntax and the relative operability of testing methods,a considerable amount of attention has been focused on wh-questions in numerous studies on syntactic disorders.The purpose of this study is to investigate the specific manifestations of non-fluent aphasia in whquestion comprehension and production in the context of the syntactic features of Chinese,so as to explore the characteristics of their syntactic disorders,with a view to providing some reference for clinical rehabilitation.More specifically:Research 1: Characteristics of wh-question comprehension in people with non-fluent aphasia.Using wh-question sentences with different syntactic structures as stimuli,the differences in verbal comprehension of wh-question sentences between 25 people with non-fluent aphasia and 25 normal individuals were compared.The results of the study showed that the people with non-fluent aphasia comprehended whquestions correctly in all syntactic structures at a lower rate than the normal individuals,and that they were impaired in different types of wh-questions in the following order:（active question,object pseudo-cleft question）>（subject pseudo-cleftt question,passive question）.The differential impairment in wh-question comprehension presented by the results of this study is consistent with the predictions of the Trace Deletion Hypothesis.Research 2: Characteristics of wh-question production in people with nonfluent aphasia.The study was divided into two parts:（1）Using the same types of wh-question types as in the comprehension experiment as target sentences and comparing the differences in output syntactic correctness between 25 people with non-fluent aphasia and 25 normal individuals on different types of wh-questions.The results showed that their production correctness rates on 3/4 types of wh-question sentences were lower than those of normal controls.And the degree of impairment in the output of different types of interrogative sentences varied in the order of correctness: active question >（pseudo-cleft sentence,passive question）.Analysis of the results revealed that the impaired output of Chinese aphasia wh-questions was not consistent with the Tree Pruning Hypothesis.（2）Comparing the rhythmic-acoustic performance of 25 people with non-fluent aphasia with 25 normal individuals on the wh-question production of four active sentences with high correct response rates,it was found that there were rhythmic abnormalities in the non-fluent aphasics,mainly in the lack of whole-sentence pitch variation and in the lack of focus pitch variation.This indicates a deficit in the ability of non-fluent aphasics to perform at the rhythmic level guided by syntax.Research 3: Correlation analysis of wh-question comprehension and production in people with non-fluent aphasia.A correlation analysis of the correct rates of wh-question verbal comprehension and production for people with non-fluent aphasia revealed that there was no significant correlation between the correct rates of the two,reflecting a separation in their performance of wh-question comprehension and production.The results of the correlation between wh-question comprehension and production and the corresponding dimensions of the Western Aphasia Battery showed that wh-question comprehension and listening comprehension,spontaneous verbal fluency,aphasia quotient were moderately correlated.In terms of production,only verbal fluency was moderately correlated with its correctness.This suggests a degree of correlation between specific dimensions of language ability and wh-question syntactic comprehension and production ability.The significance and innovations of this study are as follows:（1）a specific description of the comprehension and production of wh-questions in people with nonfluent aphasia,which complements the current data on wh-questions in Chinese aphasia;and（2）inferences and explanations of the impaired characteristics of syntactic disorders in aphasia in relation to the characteristics of Chinese syntax,which help to further understand the nature of language disorders in aphasia and thus provide some reference for the rehabilitation of syntactic disorders in clinical settings.