A Corpus Analysis of the Aktionsarten of English-Speaking Patients with Alzheimer’s Disease: A Role and Reference Grammar Account

Abstract

In this paper, we aim to describe the frequency and relative distribution of verb use by English-speaking patients with Alzheimer’s disease along its three stages. To do so, we apply the semantic representation of Role and Reference Grammar by means of the lexical aspect or Aktionsart to samples of verbs taken from the Pitt corpus of American patients with Alzheimer’s disease. Then we apply descriptive statistical measures and hypothesis testing to the samples. Our results show that patients systematically use states as the preferred type of verbs in the three stages when compared to the rest of Aktionsarten. We also show that there exists a statistically significant relation between the lexical aspect of verbs and the stages of Alzheimer’s disease. Among the explanations for these results, we propose that states may be used as the default Aktionsart because of its easier cognitive processing.