Formal semantics in the neurology clinic: Atypical understanding of aspectual coercion in ALS patients
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a neurodegenerative disease of the motor system with subtle adverse effects on cognition. It is still unclear whether ALS also affects language and semantics, and if so, what aspects and processes exactly. We investigated how ALS patients understand verb phrase...
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doaj-d23adcb622bf41f392428b36b48ccbe92020-11-24T21:13:45ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Psychology1664-10782016-11-01710.3389/fpsyg.2016.01733213250Formal semantics in the neurology clinic: Atypical understanding of aspectual coercion in ALS patientsGiosuè Baggio0Giulia Granello1Lorenzo Verriello2Roberto Eleopra3Norwegian University of Science and TechnologyNeurology Unit, Azienda Ospedaliero Universitaria Ospedali RiunitiNeurology Unit, Azienda Ospedaliero Universitaria Santa Maria della MisericordiaNeurology Unit, Azienda Ospedaliero Universitaria Santa Maria della MisericordiaAmyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a neurodegenerative disease of the motor system with subtle adverse effects on cognition. It is still unclear whether ALS also affects language and semantics, and if so, what aspects and processes exactly. We investigated how ALS patients understand verb phrases modified by temporal preposition phrases, e.g., ‘To watch TV for half an hour’. Interpretation here requires operations such as aspectual coercion that add or delete elements from event structures, depending on temporal modifiers, and constraints on coercion, which make combinations with certain modifiers not viable. Using a theoretically-motivated experimental design, we observed that acceptance rates for aspectual coercion were abnormally high in ALS patients. The effect was largest for the more complex cases of coercion: not those that involve enrichment of event structures (‘To switch on the TV in half an hour’, where a number of failed attempts must be included in the interpretation) but those that, if applied, would result in deletion of event structure elements (‘To repair the TV for half an hour’). Our experimental results are consistent with a deficit of constraints on coercion, and not with impaired semantic processes or representations, in line with recent studies suggesting that verb semantics is largely spared in ALS.http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01733/fullLanguageNeuropsychologysemanticscausal inferenceAmyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)Aspectual coercion |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Giosuè Baggio Giulia Granello Lorenzo Verriello Roberto Eleopra |
spellingShingle |
Giosuè Baggio Giulia Granello Lorenzo Verriello Roberto Eleopra Formal semantics in the neurology clinic: Atypical understanding of aspectual coercion in ALS patients Frontiers in Psychology Language Neuropsychology semantics causal inference Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) Aspectual coercion |
author_facet |
Giosuè Baggio Giulia Granello Lorenzo Verriello Roberto Eleopra |
author_sort |
Giosuè Baggio |
title |
Formal semantics in the neurology clinic: Atypical understanding of aspectual coercion in ALS patients |
title_short |
Formal semantics in the neurology clinic: Atypical understanding of aspectual coercion in ALS patients |
title_full |
Formal semantics in the neurology clinic: Atypical understanding of aspectual coercion in ALS patients |
title_fullStr |
Formal semantics in the neurology clinic: Atypical understanding of aspectual coercion in ALS patients |
title_full_unstemmed |
Formal semantics in the neurology clinic: Atypical understanding of aspectual coercion in ALS patients |
title_sort |
formal semantics in the neurology clinic: atypical understanding of aspectual coercion in als patients |
publisher |
Frontiers Media S.A. |
series |
Frontiers in Psychology |
issn |
1664-1078 |
publishDate |
2016-11-01 |
description |
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a neurodegenerative disease of the motor system with subtle adverse effects on cognition. It is still unclear whether ALS also affects language and semantics, and if so, what aspects and processes exactly. We investigated how ALS patients understand verb phrases modified by temporal preposition phrases, e.g., ‘To watch TV for half an hour’. Interpretation here requires operations such as aspectual coercion that add or delete elements from event structures, depending on temporal modifiers, and constraints on coercion, which make combinations with certain modifiers not viable. Using a theoretically-motivated experimental design, we observed that acceptance rates for aspectual coercion were abnormally high in ALS patients. The effect was largest for the more complex cases of coercion: not those that involve enrichment of event structures (‘To switch on the TV in half an hour’, where a number of failed attempts must be included in the interpretation) but those that, if applied, would result in deletion of event structure elements (‘To repair the TV for half an hour’). Our experimental results are consistent with a deficit of constraints on coercion, and not with impaired semantic processes or representations, in line with recent studies suggesting that verb semantics is largely spared in ALS. |
topic |
Language Neuropsychology semantics causal inference Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) Aspectual coercion |
url |
http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01733/full |
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