Pronoun comprehension in Moroccan Arabic aphasia: an exploratory case series

Background Pronoun comprehension in agrammatic aphasia has been widely studied for its implications for sentence processing. The Revised Slowed Syntax Hypothesis (SSH) attributes difficulties to interactions between pronoun type and sentence complexity, particularly for personal pronouns in exceptional case-marking constructions (ECMC). However, its cross-linguistic validity remains unclear.Aim This exploratory case series investigated pronoun comprehension in Moroccan Arabic-speaking PWAA, examining the interaction between pronoun type (personal vs. reflexive) and syntactic structure (transitive vs. ECMC).Methods & Procedures Five PWAA and 20 typical control participants completed a sentence-picture matching task that examined the interaction between pronoun type and syntactic structure. Comprehension was measured at the individual level using both accuracy and reaction time (RT) to capture interpretive outcomes and processing dynamics.Outcomes & Results No PWAA fully matched the Revised SSH’s predictions, indicating substantial inter-individual variability. Accuracy impairments were most consistently observed for personal pronouns in ECMC, which also elicited slower RTs. RTs generally reflected increased processing costs in ECMC, although patterns varied across individuals.Conclusions The findings support the core logic of the Revised SSH, particularly the vulnerability of personal pronouns in ECMC, but also indicate variability and accuracy-RT dissociations better captured by a resource-based extension. In the absence of a non-agrammatic comparison group, results should be interpreted as characterizing this sample rather than as specific to agrammatic aphasia.