Inflectional morphology and word order in agrammatic production: A cross-linguistic study of Moroccan Arabic and English

ABSTRACTThis cross-linguistic study examined inflectional morphology and word order in Moroccan Arabic (MA) and English-speaking persons with agrammatic aphasia (PWAA). MA has rich verbal morphology and flexible word order, whereas English has limited morphology and rigid order, providing a strong test of accounts of agrammatism. The closed-class deficit hypothesis predicts selective impairment of inflections with preserved word order, while the syntactic deficit hypothesis (SDH) attributes the disorder to a syntactic impairment affecting both domains. Speech from nine MA speakers (four PWAA, five typical participants (TP)) and ten English speakers (five PWAA, five TP) was analyzed. In both languages, PWAA showed deficits in morphology and word order, supporting the SDH. Severity patterns differed: MA-speaking PWAA trended toward greater morphological impairment, whereas English-speaking PWAA showed greater word order disruption. MA-speaking PWAA also deviated from TP's canonical VSO pattern, suggesting compensatory subject-initial strategies. Findings support a core syntactic deficit modulated by language typology.