Research on agrammatism has revealed that the nature of linguistic impairment is systematic and interpretable. Non-canonical sentences are more impaired than those of canonical sentences. Previous studies on Japanese (Hiroshi et al. 2004; Chujo 1983; Tamaoka et al. 2003; Nakayama 1995) report that aphasic patients take longer Response Time (RT)…

This paper demonstrates systematic cross-linguistic differences in the electrophysiological correlates of conflicts between form and meaning ("semantic reversal anomalies"). These engender P600 effects in English and Dutch (e.g. [Kolk et al., 2003] and [Kuperberg et al., 2003]), but a biphasic N400--late positivity pattern in German (Schlesewsky…

Seven experiments using self-paced reading and eyetracking suggest that omitting the middle verb in a double centre embedding leads to easier processing in English but leads to greater difficulty in German. One commonly accepted explanation for the English pattern--based on data from offline acceptability ratings and due to Gibson and Thomas…

Agrammatism is--among others, characterized by a deficit in producing grammatical structures. Of specific difficulty is the utilization of complex, non-canonical sentence structures (e.g. object-questions, passives, object-clefts). Several studies have documented positive effects when applying a specific treatment protocol in terms of increasingly…

Offers a new classification of the indirect question clause, as one of four categories of subordinate clauses, according to content, while retaining the three traditional form categories, namely, conjunctional, relative, and those introduced by "w-" interrogative words. (Text is in German.) (IFS/WGA)

Reports on an experiment in native speaker judgement of acceptability, designed to test the acceptability of variations on the time-manner-place order in German adverbs. Implications for teaching German are drawn. (AM)

Part 1 of a continued article. (WB)

Syntactic priming studies demonstrate that exposure to a particular syntactic structure leads speakers to reproduce the same structure in subsequent utterances. Explanations for this phenomenon rely on either the retrieval of morphosyntactic features associated with the verb in the prime sentence or the preservation of the mapping between message…

A simplified formula for teaching German word order to American students is suggested. Other formulas in a few manuals are reviewed; suggestions for application of this one are offered. Consistent use of the formula has resulted in quicker development of a native feeling for the structure of the language. (AMH)

Developmental data from the acquisition of English by a German child, aged 5, are analyzed with a view to identifying structural conditions that give rise to interference, and to determine which L2 structures are affected and which structures govern developmental changes. Word order in German and English sentences ahve reflexes in different…

The prenominal relative modifer construction (PREM) in German, while not a compulsory grammatical feature of the language, is a stylistic means of expression which native speakers use readily in non-casual speech and writing. Teaching the active use of this construction at the intermediate level of German study may be an effective means of helping…