Syntactic Processing in Developmental and Acquired Language Disorders

Abstract

Research in developmental and acquired language disorders has traditionally investigated the language strengths and weaknesses of individuals with the aim to identify different profiles and patterns of performance, develop theories that can explain the nature of these disorders and can inform the design of appropriate treatments. In Developmental Language Disorders (DLD) an important debate has been about whether language impairment is caused by incomplete linguistic knowledge/representation or by processing limitations. Similarly, in acquired language disorders a debate has revolved around whether the physiological cause of the disorder, for example, a lesion, has affected the language system directly or the processing mechanisms that enable language use. The present chapter addresses this issue by reviewing literature on syntactic processing in developmental and acquired language disorders with focus on Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) (previously called Specific Language Impairment, SLI) and Aphasia. Within the last 10 years, the number of studies using online research methodologies has increased exponentially. As a result, there is more evidence about how individuals process sentences in real‐time that can address the question about whether the language impairment is due to an impairment in linguistic representation or an impairment in processing mechanisms.