A selective deficit in morpho-phonology
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1
The New School, Department of Psychology, United States
We report on an aphasic English speaker (TB) who showed a selective problem with words like benches, couches, and skated that carry a syllabic inflection (skeɪt+ɪd). TB consistently omitted syllabic inflections when asked to name multiple objects (“Two bench”) or describe actions (“He skate”). This problem did not reflect a more general deficit in producing inflections since TB was able to correctly produce words like chairs and danced, in which the suffixes comprise a single phoneme (dæns+t). TB’s problem cannot be ascribed to difficulties in adding a syllabic inflection, since the syllabic inflection -ing was correctly produced in verbs like skating and dancing. Crucially, the syllabic inflections TB omitted in naming were successfully produced in reading aloud. This dissociation between naming and reading implies that TB’s selective problem with syllabic inflections does not involve articulation, rising instead at the level where morphology and phonology interface. In line with this interpretation, TB’s problem appears to reflect morpho-phonological mechanisms responsible for adjusting a morpheme to the phonological environment. Furthermore, it can be proposed that the inflections TB found especially problematic require specific morpho-phonological processing. While phonological constraints prohibit the addition of single-phoneme inflections in certain environments (*bɛnʧz), the vowel insertion (bɛnʧɪz) makes the inflection tolerable. The morpho-phonological mechanisms responsible for vowel insertion appear to be impaired in TB. Altogether, our findings with TB indicate that morpho-phonological processes are supported by relatively specific brain mechanisms that can be selectively impaired when the brain is damaged. In addition, our findings illuminate the mechanisms on which inflections in speech production depend. The dissociation we observed with TB between syllabic and single-phoneme inflections implies differences in the way in which each of these types of inflections is processed.
Keywords:
Morpho-phonology,
Aphasia,
morphology,
phonology,
speech production
Conference:
54th Annual Academy of Aphasia Meeting, Llandudno, United Kingdom, 16 Oct - 18 Oct, 2016.
Presentation Type:
Poster Sessions
Topic:
Academy of Aphasia
Citation:
Miozzo
M and
Shuster
VP
(2016). A selective deficit in morpho-phonology.
Front. Psychol.
Conference Abstract:
54th Annual Academy of Aphasia Meeting.
doi: 10.3389/conf.fpsyg.2016.68.00070
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Received:
28 Apr 2016;
Published Online:
15 Aug 2016.
*
Correspondence:
PhD. Michele Miozzo, The New School, Department of Psychology, New York, New York, 10011, United States, miozzom@newschool.edu