부산대학교 도서관

Word retrieval deficits are common concerns for persons with aphasia (PWA). Treatment approaches can be divided into two processes, namely phonological and semantic, based on models suggesting that word activation consists of activating the semantic representation and phonological form of the target word. The role of syntax, however, has received less attention in models of retrieval and in the treatment of word retrieval deficits. This study investigated whether a fixed noun phrase can support word finding in a PWA. Chinese is a classifier language where a classifier is obligatory in the quantitative noun phrase. The language uses two types of prenominal classifiers: sortal (serves to count individual nouns) and mensural (serves to count the units of nouns) classifiers. A Cantonese Chinese speaking PWA (LCH) with marked word retrieval deficits participated in this 15 bi-weekly, 90-minute treatment sessions, which focused on use of classifier cues to aid naming on confrontation naming. Twelve classifiers (6 sortal and 6 mensural) were selected to train target nouns. Target nouns were selected to pair with selected classifiers. Responses to cues were collected during each treatment session, documenting changes over time. Leveraging the relationship between target nouns and obligatory prenominal classifiers resulted in the participant's improved picture naming for trained nouns as well as generalization to select untrained nouns. We report significant differences in the efficacy of sortal versus mensural classifiers to serve as primes for word retrieval. Sortal classifiers were significantly more effective than mensural classifiers, for both cueing trained and untrained target nouns. For this speaker of a classifier language, use of classifiers served as viable cues for word retrieval and that sortal classifiers were more effective than mensural classifiers. Though word order does not distinguish between these two types of classifiers, their relative priming efficiency can be observed at the deep structure level. Findings suggest that a morphosyntactic approach to address word retrieval in a Chinese speaker may be beneficial but that great care must be taken in the creation of treatment materials. These factors must be further explored with additional participants and with a wider range of classifiers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]