Linking Figure and Ground in Broca's Aphasia: a case study

We report the case of a classic agrammatic speaker of Italian in repeating locative Figure/Ground relations via complex prepositions consisting of a locative axial preposition and a simple preposition in light of recent theoretical accounts of prepositions and the existing literature on prepositions in aphasia. The repetition data showed greater rates of omission for simple than axial prepositions, and a trade-off between the inclusion of the Figure and the Axial preposition. Grounds tended to be preserved. These results are unexpected on accounts that simple prepositions are more functional in nature than axial prepositions and argue for an analysis in which axial prepositions can take on a functional grammatical role. To account for the repetition data we propose that the agrammatic processor is unable to fill and retain functional Axial Parts. Hence, it links Figure and Ground through a reduced configuration, mediated by the simple preposition operating as a relational item and not a functional category. The clinical data presented here add to the empirical data set against which to test the validity of finer-grained distinctions among prepositions and compare different theoretical views of the status of prepositions.