@article{HanneBurchertVasishth2016,
  author    = {Hanne, Sandra and Burchert, Frank and Vasishth, Shravan},
  title     = {On the nature of the subject-object asymmetry in wh-question comprehension in aphasia: evidence from eye tracking},
  series = {Aphasiology : an international, interdisciplinary journal},
  volume    = {30},
  journal   = {Aphasiology : an international, interdisciplinary journal},
  publisher = {American Chemical Society},
  address   = {Abingdon},
  issn      = {0268-7038},
  doi       = {10.1080/02687038.2015.1065469},
  pages     = {435 -- 462},
  year      = {2016},
  abstract  = {Background: Individuals with aphasia (IWA) show deficits in comprehending object-extracted declaratives while comprehension of subject-extracted structures is relatively preserved. It is a matter of debate whether this subject-object asymmetry also arises for comprehension of wh-questions. Successful comprehension of wh-questions critically entails correct resolution of a filler-gap dependency. Most previous studies have used only offline accuracy measures to investigate wh-question comprehension in aphasia. Online studies exploring syntactic processing in real time are needed in order to draw inferences about gap-filling abilities in IWA and to identify the point of breakdown in sentence comprehension. Aims: This study aimed at investigating processing of subject and object who-questions in German-speaking IWA and in a group of controls by combining an offline and online method. We further aimed to explore the impact of case-marking cues on processing of wh-questions. Methods \& Procedures: Applying a variant of the visual world eye-tracking paradigm, we measured participants' eye movements while they performed the same offline task, which is frequently used to assess comprehension of declaratives (sentence-picture matching). Outcomes \& Results: Concerning online processing of who-questions in controls, we found anticipation of the most likely post-verbal theta-role immediately after processing the case-marked wh-pronoun in both subject and object questions. In addition, we observed an unexpected advantage of object over subject questions in terms of processing time. The offline results for IWA revealed that there were three heterogeneous patterns: (a) symmetrical comprehension with equal impairments for both question types, (b) asymmetrical performance with better comprehension of subject than object who-questions, and (c) a reversed asymmetry with better comprehension of object as compared to subject questions. For online processing of both types of who-questions, IWA showed retained abilities in postulating the gap and in associating the filler with this gap, although they were slower as compared to controls. Moreover, similarly to controls, they anticipated the most likely post-verbal theta-role. Conclusions: For controls, the findings provide evidence for rapid resolution of the filler-gap dependency and incremental processing of case-marking cues, reflected in early prediction of upcoming syntactic structure. We attribute faster processing of object questions to faster alignment of the anticipated element with a semantically more salient character. For IWA, the online data provide evidence for retained predictive abilities in processing of filler-gap dependencies in wh-questions, but prediction was delayed. This is most likely attributed to delayed integration of case-marking cues.},
  language  = {en}
}
@article{ArslanGuerFelser2017,
  author    = {Arslan, Se{\c{c}}kin and G{\"u}r, Eren and Felser, Claudia},
  title     = {Predicting the sources of impaired wh-question comprehension in non-fluent aphasia},
  series = {Cognitive neuropsychology},
  volume    = {34},
  journal   = {Cognitive neuropsychology},
  publisher = {Taylor \& Francis},
  address   = {Abingdon},
  issn      = {0264-3294},
  doi       = {10.1080/02643294.2017.1394284},
  pages     = {312 -- 331},
  year      = {2017},
  abstract  = {This study investigates the comprehension of wh-questions in individuals with aphasia (IWA) speaking Turkish, a non-wh-movement language, and German, a wh-movement language. We examined six German-speaking and 11 Turkish-speaking IWA using picture-pointing tasks. Findings from our experiments show that the Turkish IWA responded more accurately to both object who and object which questions than to subject questions, while the German IWA performed better for subject which questions than in all other conditions. Using random forest models, a machine learning technique used in tree-structured classification, on the individual data revealed that both the Turkish and German IWA's response accuracy is largely predicted by the presence of overt and unambiguous case marking. We discuss our results with regard to different theoretical approaches to the comprehension of wh-questions in aphasia.},
  language  = {en}
}
@article{ArslanFelser2017,
  author    = {Arslan, Seckin and Felser, Claudia},
  title     = {Comprehension of wh-questions in Turkish-German bilinguals with aphasia},
  series = {Clinical linguistics \& phonetics},
  volume    = {32},
  journal   = {Clinical linguistics \& phonetics},
  number    = {7},
  publisher = {Taylor \& Francis Group},
  address   = {Philadelphia},
  issn      = {0269-9206},
  doi       = {10.1080/02699206.2017.1416493},
  pages     = {640 -- 660},
  year      = {2017},
  abstract  = {The aim of our study was to examine the extent to which linguistic approaches to sentence comprehension deficits in aphasia can account for differential impairment patterns in the comprehension of wh-questions in bilingual persons with aphasia (PWA). We investigated the comprehension of subject and object wh-questions in both Turkish, a wh-in-situ language, and German, a wh-fronting language, in two bilingual PWA using a sentence-to-picture matching task. Both PWA showed differential impairment patterns in their two languages. SK, an early bilingual PWA, had particular difficulty comprehending subject which-questions in Turkish but performed normal across all conditions in German. CT, a late bilingual PWA, performed more poorly for object which-questions in German than in all other conditions, whilst in Turkish his accuracy was at chance level across all conditions. We conclude that the observed patterns of selective cross-linguistic impairments cannot solely be attributed either to difficulty with wh-movement or to problems with the integration of discourse-level information. Instead our results suggest that differences between our PWA's individual bilingualism profiles (e.g. onset of bilingualism, premorbid language dominance) considerably affected the nature and extent of their impairments.},
  language  = {en}
}
@article{OmaneHoehle2020,
  author    = {Omane, Paul Okyere and H{\"o}hle, Barbara},
  title     = {Acquiring syntactic variability},
  series = {Frontiers in communication},
  volume    = {2021},
  journal   = {Frontiers in communication},
  publisher = {Frontiers Media},
  address   = {Lausanne, Schweiz},
  issn      = {2297-900X},
  doi       = {10.3389/fcomm.2021.604951},
  pages     = {15},
  year      = {2020},
  abstract  = {This paper investigates the predictions of the Derivational Complexity Hypothesis by studying the acquisition of wh-questions in 4- and 5-year-old Akan-speaking children in an experimental approach using an elicited production and an elicited imitation task. Akan has two types of wh-question structures (wh-in-situ and wh-ex-situ questions), which allows an investigation of children's acquisition of these two question structures and their preferences for one or the other. Our results show that adults prefer to use wh-ex-situ questions over wh-in-situ questions. The results from the children show that both age groups have the two question structures in their linguistic repertoire. However, they differ in their preferences in usage in the elicited production task: while the 5-year-olds preferred the wh-in-situ structure over the wh-ex-situ structure, the 4-year-olds showed a selective preference for the wh-in-situ structure in who-questions. These findings suggest a developmental change in wh-question preferences in Akan-learning children between 4 and 5 years of age with a so far unobserved u-shaped developmental pattern. In the elicited imitation task, all groups showed a strong tendency to maintain the structure of in-situ and ex-situ questions in repeating grammatical questions. When repairing ungrammatical ex-situ questions, structural changes to grammatical in-situ questions were hardly observed but the insertion of missing morphemes while keeping the ex-situ structure. Together, our findings provide only partial support for the Derivational Complexity Hypothesis.},
  language  = {en}
}
@article{SalzmannWierzbaGeorgi2023,
  author    = {Salzmann, Martin and Wierzba, Marta and Georgi, Doreen},
  title     = {Condition C in German A'-movement},
  series = {Journal of linguistics : JL},
  volume    = {59},
  journal   = {Journal of linguistics : JL},
  number    = {3},
  publisher = {Cambridge Univ. Press},
  address   = {London [u.a.]},
  issn      = {0022-2267},
  doi       = {10.1017/S0022226722000214},
  pages     = {577 -- 622},
  year      = {2023},
  abstract  = {In recent experimental work, arguments for or against Condition C reconstruction in A'-movement have been based on low/high availability of coreference in sentences with and without A'-movement. We argue that this reasoning is problematic: It involves arbitrary thresholds, and the results are potentially confounded by the different surface orders of the compared structures and non-syntactic factors. We present three experiments with designs that do not require defining thresholds of 'low' or 'high' coreference values. Instead, we focus on grammatical contrasts (wh-movement vs. relativization, subject vs. object wh-movement) and aim to identify and reduce confounds. The results show that reconstruction for A'-movement of DPs is not very robust in German, contra previous findings. Our results are compatible with the view that the surface order and non-syntactic factors (e.g. plausibility, referential accessibility of an R-expression) heavily influence coreference possibilities. Thus, the data argue against a theory that includes both reconstruction and a hard Condition C constraint. There is a residual contrast between sentences with subject/object movement, which is compatible with an account without reconstruction (and an additional non-syntactic factor) or an account with reconstruction (and a soft Condition C constraint).},
  language  = {en}
}