A critique of Mark D. Allen’s “The preservation of verb subcategory knowledge in a spoken language comprehension deficit”

Allen [Allen, M. (2005). The preservation of verb subcategory knowledge in a spoken language comprehension deficit. Brain and Language, 95, 255–264.] reports a single patient, WBN, who, during spoken language comprehension, is still able to access some of the syntactic properties of verbs despite be...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Brain and language 2008-07, Vol.106 (1), p.72-78
Main Author: Kemmerer, David
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Comprehension
Comprehension - physiology
Concept Formation - physiology
Constructions
Criticism
Humans
Knowledge
Language
Language Disorders - physiopathology
Language Disorders - psychology
Linguistic Theory
Linguistics - methods
Linguistics - standards
Oral Language
Psycholinguistics - methods
Semantics
Speech
Speech - physiology
Speech Perception - physiology
Syntax
Verbal Learning - physiology
Verbs
Vocabulary
Citations: Items that this one cites
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Summary:Allen [Allen, M. (2005). The preservation of verb subcategory knowledge in a spoken language comprehension deficit. Brain and Language, 95, 255–264.] reports a single patient, WBN, who, during spoken language comprehension, is still able to access some of the syntactic properties of verbs despite being unable to access some of their semantic properties. Allen claims that these findings challenge linguistic theories which assume that much of the syntactic behavior of verbs can be predicted from their meanings. I argue, however, that this conclusion is not supported by the data for two reasons: first, Allen focuses on aspects of verb syntax that are not claimed to be influenced by verb semantics; and second, he ignores aspects of verb syntax that are claimed to be influenced by verb semantics.
ISSN:0093-934X
1090-2155
DOI:10.1016/j.bandl.2007.04.008