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Grammatical Morphology in Aphasia: Evidence from Cantonese Classifiers

Tsz Yan Chan1* and Li Ying, Lorinda KWAN-CHEN1*
  • 1 The Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, SAR China

Aims. This study aimed to provide an extensive and equitable description of the performance of people with aphasia (PWA) in comprehension and production of Cantonese classifiers. Cantonese classifiers play a significant role in the Cantonese language. However, there is limited research done on the production and comprehension of classifiers by PWA who are reported to display specific grammatical and morphological deficits. Classifiers are pre-nominal particles in Cantonese that serve both semantic and syntactic roles in noun phrases. Three categories of classifiers were examined in Cantonese, namely: sortal, containment, and collective. The hypotheses were: (i) PWA make errors in production and comprehension of Cantonese classifiers; (ii) errors made by PWA in classifiers are different across the frequency and type of classifiers. Methods. Twenty Cantonese speakers with aphasia (including fluent and non-fluent aphasia) and 14 healthy controls (HC) completed tasks to produce and to comprehend 30 classifiers. All targeted words were selected according to the highest and lowest frequency of occurrence listed in the Hong Kong Cantonese Corpus. Results. Between-group differences in accuracy on these tasks were measured via an independent t-test. The results showed that PWA had difficulties in producing all three types of classifiers (sortal, containment and collective) (M= 47.94, SD= 18.65, p=.000), and in comprehending all three types of classifiers (M= 87.20, SD= 2.53, p= .002). A frequency effect was observed that differentiated comprehension accuracy of sortal classifiers in the high frequency group (M= 28.05, SD= 2.52, p=.000) and production accuracy of collective classifiers (M=7.55, SD= 3.86, p=.014) in PWA. Conclusion. Aphasia impeded PWA in the comprehension and production of grammatical and morphological aspects of Cantonese, in particular, Cantonese classifiers. Clinical assessment and intervention for Cantonese populations with aphasia may include classifiers for more comprehensive language rehabilitation.

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Acknowledgements

I would like to acknowledge Dr. Kwan-Chen Lorinda for the supervision and express my gratitude to her. Her professional knowledge about the research topic, study design and data analysis has assisted me in completing the whole research project. She provided valuable guidance and support which helped me tackle many difficulties and encouraged me to explore more about the research content.

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Keywords: Cantonese (Asian), Classifiers, Comprehension, production, Storke, Aphasia (language)

Conference: Academy of Aphasia 57th Annual Meeting, Macau, Macao, SAR China, 27 Oct - 29 Oct, 2019.

Presentation Type: Poster presentation

Topic: Eligible for student award

Citation: Chan T and KWAN-CHEN L (2019). Grammatical Morphology in Aphasia: Evidence from Cantonese Classifiers. Front. Hum. Neurosci. Conference Abstract: Academy of Aphasia 57th Annual Meeting. doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2019.01.00033

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Received: 06 May 2019; Published Online: 09 Oct 2019.

* Correspondence:
Miss. Tsz Yan Chan, The Education University of Hong Kong, Tai Po, Hong Kong, SAR China, s1125779@s.eduhk.hk
Dr. Li Ying, Lorinda KWAN-CHEN, The Education University of Hong Kong, Tai Po, Hong Kong, SAR China, lkwan@eduhk.hk