Linguistics and Languages

A dependency distance approach to the syntactic complexity variation in the connected speech of Alzheimer's disease

N. Gao and Q. He

This groundbreaking study by Nan Gao and Qingshun He explores how Alzheimer's disease affects syntactic complexity, revealing that patients struggle with complex structures and prefer simpler syntactic forms. With working memory deficits in focus, the research highlights critical insights into the cognitive challenges faced by individuals with AD.

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Abstract

This study investigated syntactic complexity variation in Alzheimer's disease (AD) by associating working memory load with fine-grained syntactic features using a dependency distance approach. Findings show AD patients had shorter mean dependency distances (MDD) and more head-final dependencies than healthy controls. Patients showed a preference for simpler syntactic structures, struggling with longer sentences and complex structures, particularly nominal groups and hypotactic constructions. They relied more on sentence-initial adjuncts and inverted constructions. These findings suggest a hierarchical decline in syntactic complexity in AD, with working memory deficits as a critical factor.

Publisher

HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES COMMUNICATIONS

Published On

Aug 02, 2024

Authors

Nan Gao, Qingshun He

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