Friedmann N
University of California, San Diego, California, USA.
J Psycholinguist Res. 2001 Jan;30(1):71-90. doi: 10.1023/a:1005256224207.
Syntactic trees, or phrase markers, have originally been suggested as a representation of syntax in the mind based on purely linguistic grounds. In this paper, the psychological reality of syntactic trees and hierarchical ordering is explored from another perspective--that of the neuropsychology of language breakdown. The study reported here examined several syntactic domains that rely on different nodes in the tree--tense and agreement verb inflection, subordinations, interrogatives, and verb movement, through a study of 14 Hebrew- and Palestinian Arabic-speaking agrammatic aphasics and perusal of the cross-linguistic literature. The results show that the impairment in agrammatic production is highly selective and lends itself to characterization in terms of a deficit in the syntactic tree. The complex pattern of dissociations follows from one underlying deficit--the inaccessibility of high nodes of the syntactic tree to agrammatic speakers. Structures that relate to high nodes of the tree are impaired, while "lower" structures are spared.
句法树，即短语标记，最初是基于纯粹的语言学依据而被提出作为大脑中句法的一种表征形式。在本文中，句法树和层级排序的心理现实性从另一个角度——语言功能障碍的神经心理学角度——进行了探讨。此处报告的研究通过对14名讲希伯来语和巴勒斯坦阿拉伯语的语法缺失型失语症患者的研究以及对跨语言文献的研读，考察了几个依赖于句法树中不同节点的句法领域——时态和一致动词屈折变化、从属关系、疑问句以及动词移位。结果表明，语法缺失型失语症患者在语言表达上的损伤具有高度选择性，并且可以用句法树中的缺陷来描述。这种复杂的分离模式源于一个潜在的缺陷——语法缺失型失语症患者无法触及句法树的高层节点。与句法树高层节点相关的结构受损，而“较低”的结构则未受影响。
