On the relation between verb inflection and verb position in Dutch agrammatic aphasics

This study focuses on the relation between verb position and verb inflection in the speech production of Dutch agrammatic patients. In Dutch, the finite verb is moved to second position in the matrix clause (de jongen leest een boek: the boy reads a book), but remains in its base generated, that is final, position in the embedded clause (ik tie dat de jongen een boek leest: lit. I see that the boy a book reads). Nonfinite verbs (infinitives and participles) are always in clause final position. Spontaneous speech analysis shows that agrammatics are sensitive to this relation between finiteness and structural position, although they are reluctant to produce finite verbs. Experimental data shows that verb inflection as such is not the problem: these patients are perfectly able to produce a finite verb in final position in an embedded clause; this is not more difficult than producing a nonfinite verb in the same position. If the finite verb has to be produced in Verb Second position in the matrix clause, however, the patients' performance drops dramatically, (C) 1998 Academic Press.