Toegepaste Taalwetenschap in Artikelen - Volume 24, Issue 1, 1986

A variety of factors bias toward the selection of one syntactic structure over another (e.g., actives vs. passives). These factors include such properties as the inherent animacy of elements and their definiteness and thematic roles. Such linguistically systematic variables are independent of truth conditions or plausibility, and they interact with discourse factors in the selection of sen-tence form. An important question in the analysis of linguistic capacity as it normally changes through life and as it is realized under conditions of pathology is how various groups exploit these factors in their language use. This would seemingly be essentially a question about the mechanisms of sentence production, however, these factors also play a role in sentence comprehension. Sentences such as a dog was chased by the cat, the cow was milked by the farmer,and the girl was kissed by the boy are anomalous, ill-formed as productions in isolation, and, in virtue of their ill-formedness, place a burden on the comprehension system when being understood. The goal of this paper is twofold: (a) to present linguistic and psycholinguistic data illustrating the importance of these variables, and (b) point to some data which are only now beginning to emerge from studies of impaired populations which indicate the necessity of studying these variables.

A test "Alledaagse Taalvaardigheidstest" (Everyday Language Abilities Test) was developed to measure the communicative abilities of patiens with language disorders. The test is composed of 15 everyday situations. These situations have a strong conven-tional character and a well-defined fixed structure. This was reflected in the very consistent response pattern given by 30 normal subjects used to standardise the test.A scoring system was designed with 2 separate scores; one for at least adequate communicative behaviour and one for conventional verbal behaviour. 17 Broca and 12 Wernicke aphasies were tested. Aphasies achieve a relatively high score for adequate communica-tive behaviour. This is relatively independent of their achievement level on a standard aphasia test. As to their conventional verbal behaviour Broca en Wernicke patients differ significantly from normals but not from each other.The ATT has obvious theoretical relevance. In addition the test can also be used as a diagnostic and therapy evaluative tool.

In the literature on bilingual aphasia a number of patients have been described that show (spontaneous) language switching. Unfortunately, there is a lack of relevant information about the actual switching behaviour in the descript ion of these cases. In general, the occurrence of the phenomenon is stressed rather than the linguistic characteristics of the switches in spontaneous speech.In the present article, a more detailed description is given of a patient who appeared to switch between his native language (Dutch) and several foreign languages (French, German, English) in the first post-onset month. Transcriptions of spontaneous speech were analysed in order to get more insight into the switching process. Many switches seem to result from word finding problems. In some cases the word finding problems were 'solved' by using foreign words or sentences; in other cases the patient simply gave up and started a new sentence.Data on code-switching in bilingual aphasia are compared with data on non-aphasic code-switching. The two types of code-switching appear to differ considerably with regard to structural aspects of switching behaviour.

It is often stated that Broca's aphasies have problems in dealing with the set of closed class items. From a linguistic point of view, the derivational and inflectional suffixes belong to this set also. In two lexical decision experiments recognition and representation of derived and inflected word forms was studied in seven Broca's aphasies. The first study shows there is no decomposition process involved in recognizing derivational word forms: RT correlates with word form frequency and not with stem frequency. Inflected forms, however, appear to be represented 'under their stem' and therefore are recognized via the stem. Apart from the fact that Broca's aphasies are slower than age matched control subjects, the pattern of results is very similar to that of the control subjects. It can be concluded that Broca's aphasies do not show specific problems in dealing with suffixes, and that derivational and inflectional affixes may be processed differently, both by normals and Broca's aphasies·

In this article we discuss the sequence of emergence of six different types of pronouns in 36 Dutch children from one to four. This study is part of a larger project concerning the morphosyntactic development in normal Dutch children of that age. The aim of this project is to find out whether or not there are patterns in the language of three different groups of language impaired children compared to the non-language impaired children.The main conclusions of this article are: the number of pronouns increases as the child gets older. Dutch children make very few mistakes in producing the pronouns studied. The sequence of emergence of interrogative pronouns reflects the order which is found in the English literature on the subject. Demonstrative pronouns are the first to emerge in the system, followed by personal pronouns. The subject forms emerge before the object forms. There is a clear tendency for singular pronouns to emerge before plurals.

This article addresses, by means of several case studies, the following questions:- What kind of problems do we meet, in dealing with disturb-ances in language development?- Who signalises the problem, who has to make the diagnosis?- What are the specifically linguistic and-or pedagogical aspects of the problem?

A pilot study is reported of the recognition of morphological and syntactic structures by prelingually totally deaf readers. The reading process is of importance because language acquisition takes place, among other things, through writing.The study was prompted by the question posed by Hung, Tzeng en Warren (1981): Why is it so difficult for deaf subjects to develop automaticity in recognizing printed English letters and words?This question was paraphrased as follows:How unambiguously are syntactic and morphological structures reflected in writing?In the theoretical part of the study it is argued that the -er suffix can be considered ambiguous.In the experimental part of the study the question was if, and to what extent, this ambiguity has psychological reality during the reading process of deaf subjects. Three questions were studied:1. Is the subject able to recognise the suffix?2. Is he able to affix correct connotations to it?3. Is he able to give correct grammatical judgements about it?The results, based on an analysis of response delays and true/ false decisions, indicate that the deaf subjects do automatize, but in such a way that they systematically produce incorrect responses in certain spelling matters.

In the last few years many different studies have shed light on the cognitive and linguistic development of deaf children of deaf parents, using sign language.Since hearing loss does not influence a visual modality, the assumption was made that the linguistic development of deaf children of deaf parents, in the acquisition of sign language, should be normal.Research has shown that the way deaf children of deaf parents acquire sign language is similar to the way hearing children acquire their language. Both groups use the same semantic relations first in the same syntactic structures, the vocabulary and length of utterance expand in the same manner, and they show the same sort of overgeneralizations.As a result of studies concerning the language development of deaf children of deaf parents hometraining-programs for deaf children of hearing parents have reconsidered their approach concerning the use of signs in their programs, that is in the Total Communication philosophy they consider signs as an important part of the communication between hearing parents and their deaf children.

From a psycholinguistic point of view, asking for the reasons for using signs in the education of the deaf has become superfluous, for the answers are by now obvious.There remains however another question to be answered, a question concerning the way in which signs should be used.It is possible to use signs in the form of Signed Dutch; the signs support the spoken Dutch, consequently the order of the signs will be same as the wordorder in Dutch.Another possibility is to use Dutch Sign Language. This leads to bilingual education of deaf children.At this moment a choice between both methods is, as far as the Netherlands are concerned, merely a theoretical matter. Although there are some problems involved in combining speech with support-ing signs and although there is reason to consider the bilingual option seriously, a real choice cannot be made.We first have to wait for empirical results with respect to the use of Signed Dutch in the educational process. We also need more information about the structure of Dutch Sign Language and about the acquisition of aspects of this language. Then, i.e. in the future, a choice can be made if necessary. Meanwhile we have to realise that deaf children are in fact in a bilingual situation and that they have to acquire a sign language without appropriate models. A situation which calls for a solution.

In the beginning of the 60s, people realized that the signs of sign languages could be described as a simultaneous bundle of phonemes (place of articulation, handconfiguration, orientation, movement). This proved to be inspiring for the further development of sign language linguistics. Moreover, this phonemic description correlates with psychological, perceptual and expressive strategies in native users.In young deaf children who acquire a sign language, we see an early development of phonological awareness. This specific aware-ness might be linked to the kinesiologicai and psychomotor status of the sign language articulators. It could be exploited in bilingual (sign language/ spoken language) programs for educating deaf children.The introduction of sign systems rather than sign language in communication with other populations (severely mentally retarded, autistic) still leaves the question open whether the learning of signs mirrors the learning of its phonemes. Proposals for analyzing sign phonemes can be used to test this. Our data are based on an imitation and a memory test with nonverbal, severely mentally retarded persons. They point in the direction of a hier-archical gradual mastery of 'psychomotor' features of the handshape.

Until the sixties linguists didn't show any interest in the natural language of prelingually deaf people. Generally speaking their communication system was not considered a real language comparable to any spoken language. The signs used by deaf people were taken as natural gestures. In 1880 at the Milan conference on deaf education it was decided that signs should no longer be used in the schools for the deaf and that deaf people should not be allowed to use their own communication system. Instead, the spoken language of the hearing environment should be learned. At that time deaf educators were convinced of the damaging influence on spoken language development of the use of signs. However, there is no evidence for this. On the contrary, research has shown that the use of sign language as a first language improves the communicative abilities of the deaf people, which could be the basis for learning the spoken language.Despite this resolution deaf communities continued, albeit isola-ted and not openly, to use their own communication system. In 1963 a book was published by an American linguist, William Stokoe, that changed the way in which people thought about sign language. He showed how signs can be analysed into elements comparable to phonemes in spoken language and started the lingu-istic research on grammatical aspects of American Sign Language. This research showed that sign language is indeed a 'real' language, equal to any spoken language and that deaf people should have the right to use this language. Following American research, many linguists in Europe discovered' sign languages in their countries. Even in traditionally oral countries like the Netherlands and Belgium. In this paper some grammatical aspects of sign languages are discussed.

In the recent history of scientific endeavour with signing deaf people and the attitudes towards it of society at large, four periods can be distinguished, (1) until about 1950: signing is either a primitive, sublinguistic system or a derivation of spoken language, or a combination of the two; (2) until about 1965: it could be a language provided it shows enough parallels with the structure of languages based on speech; (3) until about 1980: no matter how one looks at it, it shows striking parallels with these real languages; (4) until now: forget the criteria for spoken languages and the parallellism; sign languages have a structure and a function sui generis and ought to be investiga-ted in their own true linguistic value.Of all the disciplins that have gone through this development in the periods mentioned, the following are the most important ones and are dealt with in some detail (1) linguistics, specifically phonology, syntax and lexicology; (2) psycholinguistics, including first language acquisition of deaf children of both deaf and hearing parents; (3) sociolinguistics, with some accent on the relation to creóle studies, the discourse analysis, and the bilingual situation of the deaf as a minority of a unique kind; (4) other disciplins, very shortly, like otology, audiology, neurology, neuropsychology and psychiatry.Finally, the following four speakers in the section on sign language research are introduced with some information on their backgrounds and interests (1) Trude Schermer, with lexicography, syntax and sociolinguistic comparison of local varieties as main interest; (2) Filip Loncke as the main representant of sign language research in Flemish Belgium whose specialty is sign phonology; (3) Rita Harder who has specialized in both hand shape phonology and initial interaction and communication between young deaf children and their hearing mothers; (4) Harry Knoors who as a psycholinguist and a teacher of the deaf combines research and teaching.

After a brief exposition of the learning of spelling in the mother tongue this process is compared with the learning of spelling in a foreign language. On the basis of a number of examples the problems are discussed which weak spellers encounter in learning to spell in a foreign language.

The existing -systems of error classification are inadequate in classifying and diagnosing errors made by advanced spellers. A system has to be developed that is based on the orthographic rules of the language. This system should be purely descriptive.In addition there should be an inventory of the factors that affect the spelling process. On the basis of this inventory and a description of spelling errors research hypotheses should be developed and subsequently tested. Not until this has been done can an adequate remedial programme be drawn up.

We describe a model for text comprehension. Some features of this model receive specific attention: word recognition and the use of schemes. It is argued that reading difficulties in secondary education have much to do with insufficient word recognition techniques as well as with insufficient "knowledge of the world". Some attention is given to techniques to remediate these problems.