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Carlo Semenza University of Trieste THE NEUROPSYCHOLOGY OF COMPOUND WORDS Fourth International Workshop on Language

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Carlo Semenza University of Trieste THE NEUROPSYCHOLOGY OF COMPOUND WORDS Fourth International Workshop on Language

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    1. Carlo Semenza University of Trieste THE NEUROPSYCHOLOGY OF COMPOUND WORDS Fourth International Workshop on Language Production Munster: September 3, 2007

    2. RESEARCH ON COMPOUND WORDS Q: Why in neuropsychology? A: Because… - brain damage may show the working of the lexical system in isolation from other processing and representations - of the magnitude of neuropsychological effects

    3. COMPOUND WORDS IN APHASIA methodological implications -Clinical setting seldom allows testing a sufficient amount of items: but many interesting errors! -Naming tests with compounds are limited by the number of picturable items -More items and more balanced testing can be obtained in other conditions including: repetition, reading aloud and writing on dictation

    4. WHICH APHASIC CONDITIONS ARE INFORMATIVE ABOUT MORPHOLOGICAL STRUCTURE? -agrammatism -phonological dyslexia and agraphia, deep dysphasia (often with agrammatism)

    5. COMPOUND WORDS IN APHASIA -Some patients (e.g. “phonological dyslexics”, “phonological dysgraphics”, “deep aphasics”) are very interesting since it can be demonstrated they read (or write or repeat) almost exclusively via lexical routines, being impaired in sub-lexical reading, writing and repeating (e.g. in grapheme/phoneme conversion…)

    7. Phonological Dyslexia, Phonological Agraphia, Deep dysphasia These conditions make investigations easier: why? because they allow to see production of identifiable targets in the lexical routine since the patient cannot use back up, alternative strategies

    8. COMPOUND WORDS IN APHASIA -In these patients the structure of the lexicon thus becomes (relatively) transparent to external observation -Lexical phenomena can be studied in aphasia in each particular language, exploiting differences among languages

    9. COMPOUND WORDS IN APHASIA In fact, if one wants to check whether, for example, in a given language, the representation and processing of a given type of word is performed via full list vs composition processes, phonological dyslexia allows this investigation

    10. RESEARCH ON COMPOUND WORDS Neuropsychology: most results in word production vs. Psycholinguistics: (most results in word reception?)

    11. The main results of neurolinguistic research on compounds concern: - knowledge of the word morphological status - knowledge of the compound structure and of word building rules -compositional processes -the sequence of events in processing -gender assignment -agreement of components -the case of prepositional compounds -position effects -headedness effects

    12. EARLY DESCRIPTIVE APHASIOLOGICAL LITERATURE ON COMPOUNDS Interested in assessing aphasics’ behaviour rather than in drawing inferences on normal processes 1-effect of the frequency of first component in the retrieval of whole compound 2-trouble connecting the components in Broca’s (anterior, agrammatic) aphasics; compound paraphasias in anomic aphasics. 3-highest error rates on descriptive transparent compounds than on simple words: “morphological” vs “semantic” strategies, according to the type of aphasia

    13. KNOWLEDGE OF THE COMPOUND STATUS OF THE WORD Hitmair-Delazer et al, 1994; Semenza et al, 1997; Blanken, 2000; Badecker, 2001; Chiarelli et al. 2007 When a target word to be named is a compound, aphasics tend to produce errors that are compounds even in languages where compounding is only moderately productive (e.g. Italian vs German) e.g. (Hitmair-Delazer et al, 1994): “loutspracher” or “spindelgrammophon*” instead of “plattenspieler” However they do not produce compound words on targets that are not compounds There are no substitutions of portions in monomorphemic words with embedded words (penguin > penbird*)

    14. KNOWLEDGE OF THE COMPOUND STATUS OF A PHONOLOGICAL FORM E.g., in a picture naming task: (Chiarelli, Menichelli & Semenza, 2007) Aphasics substituted simple words with other simple words in 85% (73/86) of cases (?2(1)=41.86; p <.001) vs. substituted compound words with other compounds in 79% (156/197) of cases (?2(1)=67.14; p <.001)

    15. KNOWLEDGE OF THE COMPOUND STATUS OF A PHONOLOGICAL FORM Not all brain damaged patients show this effect. E.g., in a picture naming task: (Chiarelli, Menichelli & Semenza, 2007) Alzheimer substituted simple words with other simple words in 82% (219/266) of cases (?2(1)=111.22; p <.001) but compounds with other compounds only in 53% (175/331) of cases (n.s.).

    16. KNOWLEDGE OF THE COMPOUND STATUS OF THE WORD The above described effects obtain irrespective of transparency of compounds. Compound neologisms are the product of compositional processes. The lexicon should not contain entries that would permit the neologisms to be retrieved. Some feature of the compounds initiates the compositional procedure evident in these errors. It cannot be because of the prosodic structure of the compound: poly-syllabic monomorphemic words do not induce this error type. IT MUST BE THE MORPHOLOGICAL STRUCTURE!

    17. KNOWLEDGE OF THE COMPOUND STATUS OF THE WORD Aphasics seem to know about the morphological structure of words they cannot retrieve. Information about the morphological status is independent in the brain from information about the phonological form!

    18. KNOWLEDGE OF THE COMPOUND STRUCTURE Patients substituting compounds with compound paraphasias often keep the structure of the target compound

    19. KNOWLEDGE OF THE COMPOUND STRUCTURE E.g., in a picture naming task: (Chiarelli, Menichelli & Semenza, 2007) Aphasics respect the internal structure of the target compound: in 85% (133/156) of the cases they substituted NN with NN, VN with VN, etc. (?2 (1)=82.14; p<.001).

    20. KNOWLEDGE OF THE COMPOUND STRUCTURE is thus independent in the brain from knowledge of the phonological form!

    21. KNOWLEDGE OF WORD-BUILDING RULES e.g. (Hitmair Delazer et al.) in German-speaking aphasics: -In all VN neologisms the verb stem appears in first position correctly dropping the -en ending of the infinitive -In NV derivation, there is a correct derivation with -er: putzischieber* instead of kinderwagen (lit “baby pusher”) (perambulator) tischlapper* instead of bugelbrett (lit “table folder”) (iron board) -binding rules (i.e. agreement, etc. among the components) can be spared in retrieval errors

    22. KNOWLEDGE OF WORD-BUILDING RULES World building rules are known and processed in the brain independently from the lexical form!

    23. COMPOSITIONAL PROCESSES Whole-word vs rule-based retrieval (Hitmair-Delazer et al, 1994; Semenza et al., 1997; Badecker, 2001; Mondini et al., 2004) Substitution errors invariably respect the component boundaries! -Windmühle > Schneemühle * -Saltztreuer > Sandtreuer* -Schneeman > Schneekappe* -Portarifiuti > Spazzarifiuti* -Fermacarte > Fermafogli* These phenomena happen also with opaque compounds: Dragonfly > Doctorfly*

    24. COMPOSITIONAL PROCESSES Whole-word vs rule-based retrieval Sometimes only one component is produced: lighthouse > light… slowdown > down… However most of the times there are prosodic indications suggesting how patients are aware (Badecker, 2001) that the response is incomplete and there is a missing word; sometimes this awareness is made explicit: seahorse > horse…something slowdown > ...something down Note that NO ERRORS were ever noticed in the same patients WHEREBY AN EMBEDDED WORD SUBSTITUTED FOR A WHOLE NON COMPOUND WORD (e.g. pen replacing pendulum)!

    25. COMPOSITIONAL PROCESSES Whole-word vs rule-based retrieval (Mondini et al, 2005) Binding functors (e.g. prepositions in Noun-prep-Nouns) e.g. barca a vela > barca con vela* are often substituted

    26. COMPOSITIONAL PROCESSES Whole-word vs rule-based retrieval Semenza et al., 1997; Mondini et al., 2004. In Italian Verb-Noun compounds [[aspira] V [polvere] N] N , “vacuum cleaner”, are NOUNS A number of aphasics, mainly BROCA’s aphasics, omit more frequently the Verb component. In contrast they drop or substitute with equal frequency the components of compounds like [[ferro] N[via] N] N , “railway”, [lit. “iron-way”]. The same aphasics tend to omit more verbs than nouns in their speech output. There would be no reason for the effect on VN compounds if AT SOME POINT IN PROCESSING THE TWO COMPONENTS WERE NOT SEPARATE!

    27. HOW DO THE WHOLE WORD AND ITS SEPARATE COMPONENTS INTERACT IN RETRIEVAL? Some aphasia cases (Delazer and Semenza, 1998 or Badecker, 2001) provide some indications

    28. Delazer and Semenza’s 1998 patient -naming difficulties with compounds (and not with other words) not due to problems in input or in the semantic/conceptual system because: -good understanding -appropriate definitions -could spot non-existing compounds -knew compounding rules -distinguished legal from non legal compounds

    29. Delazer and Semenza, 1998 (cont) the output difficulty was not due to length or frequency, because the patient could flawlessly: -retrieve long low-frequency monomorphemic words -produce unfamiliar complex number words THEREFORE AN OUTPUT PROBLEM

    30. Semenza, Borgo & Fortini, 2002 -Another pt with selective anomia for compounds is studied similar to Delazer and Semenza, 1998. -The functional defect is identified in accessing the Phonological Output Lexicon -A comparison is made with a comparatively severe anomic pt, with the same defect, on the same material. While the first pt makes almost exclusively errors with compounds, the second pt makes errors on both compounds and simple words THIS SHOWS THAT DELAZER AND SEMENZA’S PT HAD AN AUTHENTIC DIFFICULTY WITH DEMANDS POSED BY COMPOUND PROCESSING

    31. Delazer and Semenza 1998 (cont) -never substituted compound targets with monomorphemic words -often retrieved one component replacing the other one however: most neologisms made sense as referring to the meaning of the whole target compound: “salvaguida*” instead of “parafulmine” “bidonerifiuti*” instead of “portarifiuti” “pescetigre*” instead of “pescecane”(shark) THIS SEEMS TO INDICATE ACTIVATION AT SOME LEVEL OF THE WHOLE WORD FORM

    32. Delazer and Semenza , 1998 (cont) Badecker, 2001 -first and second component equally affected -preserved components mostly keeping their position, except in some misordering errors (fortune teller > teller fortune) -decomposition also for opaque compounds -no frequency effect -no head effect COMPONENTS ACTIVATED IN PARALLEL

    33. Delazer and Semenza 1998 (cont) PROBLEM IN ACTIVATING TWO SEPARATE FORMS WITH A SINGLE ENTRY i.e. IN LINKING SEPARATELY RETRIEVED COMPONENT FORMS TO POSITION IN THE TARGET FRAME

    34. Delazer and Semenza 1998 (cont) Badecker, 2001 Activation of the representation for the whole word as well as for the separate components AN INTERMEDIATE STAGE (LEMMA???) BETWEEN SEMANTICS AND PHONOLOGY IS LIKELY TO BIND TOGETHER TWO SEPARATE LEXEMES, SPECIFYING HOW THESE COMPONENTS MUST BE COMBINED THE MEANING ITSELF IS NOT LIKELY TO DO THE BINDING, BECAUSE COMPOUNDS MAY HAVE MONOMORPHEMIC SYNONYMS

    35. GENDER ASSIGNMENT In Italian one must distinguish: rule based semantically based lexically based gender assignment gender percolates on articles: “il” M, “la” F

    36. GENDER ASSIGNMENT (cont) in Italian nouns are inflected also in the citation form. The regular endings are: -o M toro, vaso -a F suora, bocca but there are exceptions: -a M poeta, diploma, guardia, sentinella -o F mano there is also another ending: -e, whose gender is unpredictable M ponte, sole, pompiere F torre, luce, rondine

    37. GENDER ASSIGNMENT (cont) in Italian compounds gender depends on the structure of the head: left headed NNc: la casa albergo, il bagnoschiuma right headed NNc: la ferrovia il viadotto VNc are exocentric and generally masculine, even if ending in -a: il segnalibro, il colapasta

    38. GENDER ASSIGNMENT (cont) pt MB ( Mondini, Luzzatti & Semenza, 1999) had to assign gender (via article) to simple and to compound nouns ( NN=-a-o, -o-a; VN=-a,-o) and to nonwords and pseudoderived nonwords.

    39. GENDER ASSIGNMENT (cont) pt MB ( Mondini, Luzzatti & Semenza, 1999) failed with: - items without natural gender with -e ending -compounds, where he assigned gender on the basis of the ending of the second component, even in VN compounds (he was accidentally successful with VNc ending in -o). DISSOCIATION BETWEEN CORRECT RULE AND SEMANTICALLY BASED VS IMPAIRED LEXICALLY BASED GENDER ASSIGMENT

    40. AGREEMENT BETWEEN COMPONENTS in Noun-Adjective and in Adjective-Noun Compounds (in Italian most adjectives must be inflected) Mondini, Jarema, Luzzatti, Burani and Semenza (2002) Production in reading, repeating, and sentence completion of NA and AN compounds, compared to noun adjective pairs that are not compounds: sangue freddo (cold blood), croce rossa (red cross) vs. sangue secco (dry blood), croce gialla (yellow cross)

    41. AGREEMENT BETWEEN COMPONENTS in Noun-Adjective and in Adjective-Noun Compounds Mondini, Jarema, Luzzatti, Burani and Semenza (2002) Two agrammatic patients were able to inflect adjectives embedded in a compound noun, but could not process gender agreement in a standard noun phrase. NA compounds seem to be processed mainly as whole words.

    42. PREPOSITIONAL COMPOUNDS Prepositional compounding N-prep-N is a productive process in romance languages: mulino a vento (windmill) -strictly speaking they may be lexicalised syntax rather than compounds -most often opaque with respect to the choice of linking prepositions: film a colori vs film in bianco e nero -do not allow insertion of adjective sedia rotta a rotelle* vs sedia a rotelle rotta

    43. PREPOSITIONAL COMPOUNDS (cont) Mondini , Luzzatti, Saletta, Allamano & Semenza, 2005 Phonological dyslexic/agrammatic pts had difficulties in the production of the linking preposition, even in fully lexicalized forms in syntactically and semantically opaque compounds PC are decomposed somewhere along processing where they become sensitive to the pt’s agrammatism

    44. POSITION AND HEADEDNESS Position effects (Semenza et al, 1997; Delazer and Semenza, 1998; Blanken 2002; Mondini et al. 2004; Chiarelli et al, 2005, 2007) depend on language, category, headedness Headedness effects (Jarema et al., 2007; El Yagoubi et al., 2007) can be disentangled from position effects

    45. Position effects (Delazer and Semenza, 1998; Mondini, Luzzatti, Zonca, Pistarini and Semenza 2004; Chiarelli, Menichelli and Semenza, 2007) -No position effect has been found in substitution errors in patients with a naming deficit almost exclusively impairing compounds with respect to simple words. -Aphasics are differentially sensitive to position depending on structure of compounds and on aphasia category -Alzheimer patients, but not aphasics, tested on same material, show a genuine position effect, dropping more easily the second component. This happens particularly in NN compounds, where no grammatical class effect can interact. (Processing overload effect on second component?)

    46. Headedness effects (Jarema, Perlak & Semenza, 2007; in prep.) Bilingual (English/Quebec French) phonological dyslexics seem to preserve head component compared to non-head component in producing matched compounds (the same name is right-headed in English and left-headed in French) e.g. rainbow vs arc-en-ciel medical certificate vs certificat médical

    47. ERP studies (Koester, Gunter, Wagner and Friederici, 2004; Koester, Gunter and Wagner, 2007) A series of experiments presenting German compounds in the auditory modality. They manipulated the agreement between a determiner and the initial compound (non-head) constituent and the agreement between a determiner and the last constituent (head). Although only the head is morphosyntactically relevant in German, both constituents elicited left anterior negativity (LAN) if the gender was incongruent. Since it was observed for both transparent and opaque compounds, Koester at al. took it as evidence in favour of a dual model with parallel processing routes. They further compared the processing of opaque and transparent compounds and found that transparent compounds elicited increased negativity with a centroparietal maximum that occurred during the presentation of the head constituent. They interpreted this result as reflecting semantic integration of compound constituents, accessed separately.

    48. Neural correlates of Italian nominal compounds and headedness effect: An ERP study (1). (El Yagoubi, Chiarelli, Mondini, Perrone, Danieli and Semenza, 2007) Modulation of the morpho-syntactic components (LAN and P600) associated with compound words rather than non-compound words was found. These findings converge with data from lesion studies and with data reported by Koester and coworkers (Koester et al., 2004, 2006), which they obtained in an auditory rather than in a visual modality.

    49. Neural correlates of Italian nominal compounds and headedness effect: An ERP study (2). (El Yagoubi, Chiarelli, Mondini, Perrone, Danieli and Semenza, 2007) Significant difference between left- and right-headed compounds for P300 (there was no modulation in the case of non words constituted by switching the compound components and in the two types of non-compounds with a word embedded in first or second position) The head of compounds is a relevant element and has electrophysiological correlates! When the head of the right-headed category is accessed in a language that, like Italian, has two positional options, there might be an update of the crucial information contained in the head-bearing first component, resulting in a increase of the P300 amplitude; on the other hand, in the case of a left-headed compound, the update on the second component is not needed because the crucial information has already been processed.

    50. Neural correlates of Italian nominal compounds and headedness effect: An ERP study (2). (El Yagoubi, Chiarelli, Mondini, Perrone, Danieli and Semenza, 2007)

    51. NEUROPSYCHOLOGY OF COMPOUNDS (conclusions) Main contributions of Neuropsychology: 1-independence of the knowledge of compound status, compound structure, compounding rules from knowledge of phonological form 2-evidence of de-composition even in opaque compounds 3-independence (dissociability) from one another of gender assignment mechanisms (rules, sem., lex.) 4-evidence of simultaneous retrieval of components 5-evidence of simultaneous activations of all meaningful representations (whole and comp.) 6-headedness effect disentangled from position effect

    52. Thanks to: -Cristina Burani -Valentina Chiarelli -Margarete Delazer -Radouane El Yagoubi -Gonia Jarema -Claudio Luzzatti -Alina Menichelli -Sara Mondini who made all this work possible

    53. THANK YOU!

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