On linguistic properties of verbal number systems: A cross-linguistic study of number transcoding errors observed in a Basque–French bilingual patient with aphasia

Syntactic priming reveals an explicit syntactic representation of multi-digit verbal numbers

“…Previous studies used different methods to examine the syntactic processing of verbal numbers -e.g., neuropsychological examination of individuals with selective deficits (Dotan & Friedmann, 2018;Marangolo et al, 2004;McCloskey et al, 1986), manipulating the grammaticality of number-word sequences (Brutman & Dotan, 2019;Hung et al, 2015), saying the same numbers with different verbal structure (Lochy et al, 2002;Noël & Seron, 1997), and examining languages with tens-ones number-word inversion (Blanken et al, 1997;Brysbaert et al, 1998;Cohen et al, 1997;Contreras-Saavedra et al, 2020;Göbel et al, 2014;Hayek et al, 2020;Moeller et al, 2009;Pixner et al, 2011;Pourquié & Nespoulous, 2018;Proios et al, 2002;Qasim-Masarwa et al, 2020;Zuber et al, 2009). Syntactic priming is an additional paradigm, which offers unique advantages: first, it does not merely tap "sensitivity" to the number syntax, a phenomenon that can occur also for low-level syntactic processes, perhaps even such that handle syntactic information merely for single digits or single number words.…”

“…However, phonological retrieval is a language-dependent peripheral stage; clearly not the central representation that we wish to examine here. Other studies showed sensitivity to the order of number words in languages with non-canonical word order -in particular, languages such as German or Arabic, in which the ones word precedes the tens word, e.g., 123 = "one hundred three and twenty" (Blanken et al, 1997;Brysbaert et al, 1998;Cohen et al, 1997;Contreras-Saavedra et al, 2020;Göbel et al, 2014;Hayek et al, 2020;Moeller et al, 2009;Pixner et al, 2011;Pourquié & Nespoulous, 2018;Proios et al, 2002;Qasim-Masarwa et al, 2020;Zuber et al, 2009). Nevertheless, word-order too might be handled by peripheral syntactic processes that operate on a verbal, language-specific representation rather than on a central representation (the number-reading model in Dotan & Friedmann, 2018 made precisely this assumption).…”