The comprehension and production of Wh- questions among Malay children with developmental language disorders: Climbing the syntactic tree

This study is an investigation of both comprehension and production of Wh- questions in Malay-speaking children with a developmental language disorder (DLD). A total of 15 Malay children with DLD (ages 7;0–9;11 years) were tested on a set of Wh- questions (who subject and object, which subject and object), comparing their performance with two control groups [15 age-matched typically developing (TD) children and 15 younger TD language-matched children]. Malay children with DLD showed a clear asymmetry in comprehension of Wh- questions, with a selective impairment for which NP questions compared with who questions. Age-matched controls performed at ceiling in all Wh- questions, while the language-matched group reported a subject/object asymmetry selective for the which NP, as reported in other languages. In production, both children with DLD and younger children showed a preference for questions with in situ Wh- elements, a structure that is allowed in colloquial Malay, but which is not produced by the age-matched TD group. Several non-adult-like strategies were adopted particularly by the children with DLD to avoid complex sentences, including substitution with yes/no echo questions, production of the wrong Wh- question, and use of a generic Wh- element. The study provides an insight on the mastery of Wh- questions in both typical Malay children and children with DLD. Implications for the definition of a clinical marker for DLD in a free word order language with Wh- in situ option will be discussed

Sentence comprehension in Malay-speaking adults with aphasia: The role of affix integration

Background: One of the impairments in comprehension mostly reported for aphasia is that in reversible passive sentences, where a systematic asymmetry with reversible active sentences has been attested across languages. In several accounts, this selective impairment has been proposed to be the result of the specific syntax of passive sentences. However, some results particularly from flexible word order languages suggest that a pattern where both active and passive sentences are impaired also exists. Aims: In this study, we examined the actives and passives in the comprehension of a flexible word order language, namely standard Malay, in people with aphasia (PWA), aiming to confirm that the predominant pattern in this language is one of generalised impairment across reversible sentences (active and passive), and not an asymmetrical one. The role of fluency in determining the pattern of impairment was also explored. Methods & procedures: Fourteen healthy adults and 20 PWA, 14 with fluent aphasia and 6 with non-fluent aphasia, took part in a comprehension study in standard Malay. Standard Malay is a flexible word order language that relies on the parsing of the voice affix on the verb to correctly interpret both active and passive sentences. Participants were tested on a sentence-picture matching task on comprehension of active and passive reversible clauses. Outcomes and results: The study revealed that PWA were overall less accurate than healthy speakers in comprehension of reversible active and passive sentences, and non-fluent PWA were less accurate than fluent PWA with no effect of sentence type (active/passive). While not predominant, an asymmetric pattern was present in some participants. We propose that an impairment in thematic role assignment leads to a generalised impairment in comprehension of reversible sentences, while preserved thematic role mapping and impaired syntax lead to an asymmetric impairment. Conclusions: The study confirmed that speakers of Malay mostly show a generalised impairment in both active and passive sentences. Given the nature of the language, we propose that this suggests that impairment in Malay is predominantly shown on affix integration, first in mapping of thematic roles, and then in the full syntactic processing