These results provide evidence of how language and thought disintegrate together in FTD, with language disintegrating along hierarchical layers of linguistic organization and affecting specific construction types. Moreover, copular clauses were more often anomalous than non-copular ones. Statistically significant differences in error proportions emerged within the domain of pronominals, where covert pronouns were more affected than overt pronouns, and 3 rd Person pronouns more than 1 st and 2 nd Person ones. indefinite NPs, or 3 rd Person pronouns vs. No differential impairment was seen in definite vs. Morphosyntax and lexis were comparatively least affected, while argument structure was intermediate. Results showed significantly higher error proportions in referential anomalies against all other domains.
Referential anomalies, subcategorized into NP type involved, 2. Here we reanalyzed a corpus of severely thought-disordered speech with a view to capture patterns of linguistic disintegration comparatively across hierarchical layers of linguistic organization: 1. Speech patterns seen in patients with schizophrenia and formal thought disorder (FTD) present an opportunity to do this.
Potential inter-dependence of the two systems can be addressed by considering language under conditions of pathological changes in the neurotypical thought process. However, thought of the type expressed in language is difficult to access in language-independent terms. On current models of the language faculty, the language system is taken to be divided by an interface with systems of thought.