A Phonological Investigation of Aphasic Speech
... More generally, extended data from aphasic discourse in languages like Greek are expected to contribute to the investigation of its linguistic properties in comparison with other languages; for example, the pilot version of GREAC has been compared to English and Hungarian data, suggesting that word frequency distribution is similar to non-aphasic discourse, whereas differences between languages can be related to languages' morphological properties and particular language impairments (Neophytou et al., 2017). The detailed error annotation can also provide important evidence for the distribution of error types, especially the pervasive phonological vs. semantic distinction (Schuchard et al., 2017;McKinnon et al., 2018;Harvey et al., 2019), as well as of sub-categories of error types, that is the relative frequency of substitution, omission, addition etc. in order to test the findings of earlier linguistic studies of aphasic discourse (e.g., Blumstein, 1973;Lesser, 1995). More details can be obtained for e.g., the distribution of phonetic vs. phonemic errors (Ash et al., 2010), semantic errors vs. errors of omission (Bormann et al., 2008), the characteristics of errors of omission (vs. ...
We assessed phonological and apraxic impairments in Hindi persons with aphasia (PwA) and compared them to Italian PwA reported in previous studies. Overall, we found strong similarities. Phonological errors were present across production tasks (repetition, reading and naming), most errors were non-lexical and, among those, a majority involved individual phonemes. There were significant effects of length, but not frequency. Hindi PwA, like the Italian PwA, showed strong effects of syllabic structure, with most errors occurring on consonants and weak syllabic positions, preserving syllable structure and simplifying phonemes or syllabic templates. These similarities were modulated by some language-specific patterns. Vowel insertions were more common in Hindi, possibly due to the presence of a central vowel, and segmental simplifications concentrated on marked aspiration and retroflection features. We hope our study will encourage further research in Hindi and other Indian languages. This will improve clinical diagnosis and our understanding of cross-linguistic differences.
Résumé
Cet article questionne la nature des troubles phonologiques à travers le prisme de la notion de complexité phonologique chez des locuteurs francophones atteints d’aphasie. Si de nombreux travaux ont été consacrés aux erreurs phonétiques portant sur la réalisation des phonèmes, plus rares sont les études qui prennent en compte la dimension phonologique, i.e. l’environnement contextuel. Toutefois certains auteurs montrent que la structure syllabique du mot, ou encore la position des segments au sein des syllabes influencent les réalisations des locuteurs atteints d’une aphasie (Wilshire & Nespoulous, 2003; Buchwald et Miozzo, 2012; Buchwald, 2017). Ces facteurs renvoient à la notion de complexité phonologique.
Cette étude présente une analyse des erreurs phonologiques dans l’aphasie à partir d’un corpus de données empiriques récoltées auprès de huit locuteurs. Plusieurs facteurs de la complexité phonologique sont ici analysés afin de comprendre s’ils jouent un rôle dans la réalisation des erreurs. L’hypothèse est que la présence de séquences consonantiques, la position de ces séquences dans les items (initiale vs médiane), la nature de ces séquences (hétérosyllabique, tautosyllabique) ainsi que la longueur des items (bi vs trisyllabique) influencent la production des erreurs. À travers cette recherche, nous espérons accroître les connaissances sur la nature des déficits phonologiques.
Consonant production errors are common in dysarthric speech, but not all consonants are affected to the same extent. Currently, only limited knowledge exists regarding whether different positional allophones are affected to varying degrees in dysarthric speech. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of consonants’ position-in-words on consonant production accuracy and their relevance to speech intelligibility. To this end, the percentage of correctly articulated consonants was analyzed with respect to position-in-words, manner of articulation, and speakers’ overall intelligibility in dysarthric speech secondary to cerebral palsy. Results revealed that consonants were generally more accurate in initial positions than other positions, and when they were singletons rather than clusters. However, fricatives, a category commonly noted for frequent misarticulations, exhibited no significant positional effects, indicating that fricatives were affected to a similar degree across all word positions. In addition, positional asymmetry manifested to a greater degree as intelligibility decreased. Finally, the strength of the relationship between consonant production accuracy and intelligibility varied depending on positions-in-words, with strong correlations in the medial and final cluster positions but no significant correlation for fricatives in the initial and final singleton positions. The correlation was markedly low for the initial consonants, possibly due to the resistance of initial consonants to production errors. The positional asymmetry found in this study necessitates more research on non-initial consonants and clusters for their potential in improving consonant production and speech intelligibility as a part of dysarthria management.
Background: Functional and usage-based theories of language are gaining increasing influence in linguistics. These theories understand language structure as underpinned by domain-general neurocognitive capacities and as shaped by usage patterns and the function of language as a means for communication. Accordingly, they entail an approach to aphasia which differs markedly from established ones based on formal theories.
Aims: Based on an outline of central claims in functional and usage-based theories, we aim to show how such theories can cast new light on aphasia.
Methods & Procedures: We focus on two strands of functional and usage-based aphasiological research: 1) research on frequency effects in aphasic speech, 2) and research on the grammatical-lexical distinction and its significance for the description of aphasic speech and the understanding of the causes of aphasia. We review available studies that fall within the two aforementioned strands of research, assessing their strengths and limitations.
Outcomes & Results: Usage-based methodologies are currently being developed that allow for fast quantification of the degree of formulaicity of a language sample and may thus be helpful in ascertaining the role of fossilized multiword expressions in aphasia. In line with central claims in usage-based linguistics, the first results of studies employing these methodologies have shown that frequency and collocation strength facilitate the retrieval of multiword expressions in a way that resembles the way in which lexical frequency facilitate retrieval of isolated words.
A recent functional and usage-based theory understands the grammatical-lexicon distinction as a means for prioritizing parts of complex linguistic messages. Defining grammatical items as items that are discursively secondary (background) and dependent on host items, this theory entails an account of grammatical deficits which bridges the gap between existing structure-oriented and processing-oriented accounts. The theory entails word-class general criteria that allow fine-grained classification of linguistic items as grammatical or lexical. Cross-linguistic studies of verb, pronoun and preposition production show that this classification is significant for the description of aphasic language.
Conclusions: Functional and usage-based studies of aphasia are still sparse, but show promising results. This approach seems especially qualified for understanding 1) the neurocognitive causes of various types of aphasia, 2) the variability across languages, communicative settings (including tasks and modalities), groups of individuals and individuals, which is characteristic of aphasic speech, and 3) the link between aphasia symptoms and the basic need and challenge for people with aphasia: to remain a social being by communicating with other social beings.
Review Article: On Finding a Place for Trubetzkoy’s Brain-Child - Volume 31 Issue 4 - Rajendra Singh
Using continuous variables derived in information theory and from a Markovian model of phonemic chaining, we have anamysed some strings of jar-gonic speech of French speakers (glossolalics, schizophasics, aphasies, poets) and of natural French2. These anamyses give a quantitative meaning to the concept of phonological plane. Discriminant anamyses separate our groups in a clear-cut fashion. Elementary numerical cmustering provides a meaningful interpretation. This type of approach could bring, in its future developments, further insights into the phonological systems of languages.
This paper analyses the factors that predict substitution errors produced by four Broca’s and four conduction aphasic subjects, all native speakers of Spanish, in reading and repetition tasks. Errors were elicited using a list of words where type of consonant, lexical stress and phonetic context were controlled for and where variables related to frequency of occurrence (word and syllable) and phonological neighbourhood characteristics were assigned using available online corpora.
675 substitution errors were obtained and preferential tendencies to devoice, occlusivise or spirantise were identified. Logistic regression mixed-effect models were performed on these three types of substitution errors to identify the predictors depending on the aphasic profile.
While our results lent support to the hypothesis of a concomitant phonetic deficit in fluent aphasia, contrary to the classical claim, it also revealed differential patterns in the phonic behaviour of patients regarding the access to mental syllabary or syllabic position effects.
Our results are discussed in relation to the phonetic vs. phonological impairments dimension in aphasia and the seriality/ interactivity axis in speech architectures.
Disorders of speech and language in children are a major management concern for the primary care physician and parents. Delays, disorders, and dysfunctions of communication skills constitute some of the most frequent reasons for referral to the developmental pediatrician and/or interdisciplinary diagnostic centers. The next several chapters review issues of speech and language disorders in childhood from various perspectives. This chapter highlights recent neurological findings related to the control of speech skills.
By “aphasia” is meant disturbances in verbal communication due to circumscribed cerebral lesions. Such a definition is not particularly satisfactory, since the language disorder is defined by the focal lesion giving rise to it rather than by any special feature of the disorder itself.
Implicit in the title of this chapter is the promise that we will try to relate the evolutionary history of language to the current distribution of language function in the brain. Unfortunately, this is a promise we are unable to fulfill. At present there are simply too few points of contact between these two areas of limited knowledge for one to inform the other.
In this paper I will consider the nature of phonotactic markedness in the light of work in early first language phonotaxis. Then we will turn to work in progress on a particular family of aphasic word production errors, to recent studies of second language acquisition, and to instrumental phonetic work on perceptual aspects of phonotaxis. I think that all four of these areas of study, as well as slip of the tongue data, are fitting together to make a coherent explanatory approach to phonotactic universals, this paper is intended as a brief introduction to the nature of that approach.
Our knowledge of the brain mechanisms of language depends heavily on evidence derived from aphasia study, supplemented by electrocortical and metabolic investigations. Clinical observation reveals definite patterns of language change with focal lesions. These patterns are also apparent with stimulation of regions in the left frontal and temporo-parietal areas. The symptoms of aphasia reflect processing stages in normal language, and areas identified with these symptoms correspond to stages in forebrain evolution. A consideration of this material leads to a microgenetic or unfolding model of language representation in the brain.
This chapter treats the various “mechanisms” that may be said to underlie aphasic transformations. I have quoted the word mechanisms for a reason, since that term implies some sort of device (actually, another metaphor) or internal agent that does things. Whatever these mechanisms are in their neurophysiological instantiations, they must be understood psychologically as manipulating some types of elements in some domain of operation. Without first attempting to characterize what the mechanisms might be at a psycholinguistic level of explanation and what they might do, we will not be in any position to begin to characterize aphasic transformations. That is, in order to start I must lay out a production model of some sort that can justifiably be said to form part of the cognitive system for language—a model constructed from evidence external to the data from aphasia.
Many aphasics produce phonological1 errors in their speech. These errors often involve phoneme substitution (“octagus” for octopus), phoneme omission (“ottapus” for octopus), and phoneme addition (“octrapus” for octopus). Such speech errors, as well as those that are more phonologically distorted (“octragut” for octopus), are called “phonemic” (or “literal”) paraphasias. More distorted phonological productions are called “neologisms” (“okso” for octopus).2 It is difficult to strictly define “phonemic paraphasia” and “neologism,” but a useful rule of thumb is that the target word of a phonemic paraphasia is typically easy to identify, while the target word of a neologism is typically difficult to identify.
Whereas cross-linguistic work on aphasia has been well established, speech error research has been mostly carried out within single languages (except Berg, 1987, 1988). Following Dressler’s (1982) first outline of similarities and differences between speech errors and phonological paraphasias in several languages, we started a respective Italian-Austrian project (Dressier, Magno Caldognetto, and Tonelli, 1986; Dressier, Tonelli, and Magno Caldognetto, 1987).
Analysis of speech production of Wernicke’s aphasics confronts one, at first glance, with nearly unsolvable problems on all linguistic levels of analysis. Linguistic theory is thus greatly challenged when accounting for the symptomatology of Wernicke’s aphasics. We believe that linguistic theory can help explain one of the most interesting and puzzling phenomena in aphasic symptomatology, i.e., neologistic jargon. In the present study we analyzed the performance of two aphasics who produce phonemic jargon on a repetition and a naming task. The aim of this investigation was to elucidate the interactions between prosodic and morphosyntactic structures of neologisms and paraphasias within the framework of metrical phonology. In particular, we addressed the following questions: (1) Is there a hierarchy of impairment for the various constituents of syllable structure? (2) In what ways do the various levels/components interact on the prosodic and morphosyntactic hierarchy?
Syllable markedness as a means to characterize patterns observed in the production of phonological errors in aphasia is considered in this chapter. Specifically, the markedness theory incorporated here is the well known principle of sonority, and the error type in question is the often-observed “doublet creation.” Consonantal doublet creation, where an exact replica of some target-word consonant is duplicated and is either added to the string (in the sense of epenthesis) or substitutes from some other already existing consonant in the target word, is discussed. A basic assumption here is that syllable markedness can form a knowledge base for language production mechanisms; or, put slightly differently, productive mechanisms derived from psycholinguistic model construction should embody principles arrived at through linguistic inquiry. It is a sine qua non that linguistic theory must have an impact on the psychological constructs derived from performance domains.
The term phonemic paraphasia refers to a variety of aphasic “transformations,” which, in the absence of arthric disorders, alter the phonological structure of a word so that phonemic units are deleted, displaced, added, or substituted (Lecours & Lhermitte, 1969). Such transformations belong to the symptomatology of oral expression of many clinical types of aphasia (Blumstein, 1973; Nespoulous, Lecours, Deloche, Joanette, & Lhermitte, 1982b; Lecours, Lhermitte, & Bryans, 1983; Martory, & Messerli, 1983; Nespoulous & Borrell, 1979).
Background:
Although many speech errors can be generated at either a linguistic or motoric level of production, phonetically well-formed sound-level serial-order errors are generally assumed to result from disruption of phonologic encoding (PE) processes. An influential model of PE (Dell, 1986; Dell, Burger & Svec, 1997) predicts that speaking rate should affect the relative proportion of these serial-order sound errors (anticipations, perseverations, exchanges). These predictions have been extended to, and have special relevance for persons with aphasia (PWA) because of the increased frequency with which speech errors occur and because their localization within the functional linguistic architecture may help in diagnosis and treatment. Supporting evidence regarding the effect of speaking rate on phonological encoding has been provided by studies using young normal language (NL) speakers and computer simulations. Limited data exist for older NL users and no group data exist for PWA.
Aims:
This study tested the phonologic encoding properties of Dell's model of speech production (Dell, 1986; Dell,et al., 1997), which predicts that increasing speaking rate affects the relative proportion of serial-order sound errors (i.e., anticipations, perseverations, and exchanges).
Methods & procedures:
The effects of speech rate on the error ratios of anticipation/exchange (AE), anticipation/perseveration (AP) and vocal reaction time (VRT) were examined in 16 normal healthy controls (NHC) and 16 PWA without concomitant motor speech disorders. The participants were recorded performing a phonologically challenging (tongue twister) speech production task at their typical and two faster speaking rates.
Outcomes & results:
A significant effect of increased rate was obtained for the AP but not the AE ratio. Significant effects of group and rate were obtained for VRT.
Conclusion:
Although the significant effect of rate for the AP ratio provided evidence that changes in speaking rate did affect PE, the results failed to support the model derived predictions regarding the direction of change for error type proportions. The current findings argued for an alternative concept of the role of activation and decay in influencing types of serial-order sound errors. Rather than a slow activation decay rate (Dell, 1986), the results of the current study were more compatible with an alternative explanation of rapid activation decay or slow build-up of residual activation.
Background: The differential diagnosis between apraxia of speech (AOS) and aphasia with phonemic paraphasia is challenging because the disorders share similar speech characteristics. Quantification of the speech profile of AOS is needed.
Aims: To characterise the relative frequency of sound distortion errors in speakers with aphasia with and without AOS and to evaluate inter-observer reliability for this metric among independent listeners.
Methods & Procedures: Fourteen adults with left hemisphere lesions were recruited from a consecutive clinical sample. They were assigned to groups of probable apraxia of speech (P-AOS) or probable aphasia with phonemic paraphasia (P-APP), based on the multisyllabic word production rate and perceptually evident sound errors. Four listeners generated independent phonetic transcriptions from an audio-recorded motor speech evaluation. The percentage of distorted segments and inter-observer reliability were calculated.
Outcomes & Results: Inter-observer reliability was satisfactory for frequency of the overall distortion errors (ICC = 0.73, p < .001). Distortion frequencies were greater in the P-AOS group than in the P-APP group, but varied along on a continuum. Severity effects could not be ruled out, as the overall sound error frequencies were higher in the P-AOS group.
Conclusions: With narrow phonetic transcription, independent clinicians can expect to code relative distortion frequency reliably, even though they may differ in the type of distortions they favour and in the absolute rates they observe. Distortion errors are present in speech produced by speakers with aphasia whose speech is characterised by sound error production, and rates are generally higher in stroke survivors who meet prosodic criteria for AOS. The relationship between phonemically salient sound errors and sound distortion frequency should be addressed in future research.
The aim of this study was to investigate the phonemic and semantic input and output processes that underlie overt speech and language behaviour in aphasic syndromes. To this end, two non-oral tasks involving word identification and matching were employed. Twenty-five aphasic and 22 matched controls were required to identify pictures of spoken words from arrays of either phonemic or semantic distractors. In the matching tasks, which attempted to mimic the phonological and semantic processes involved in picture naming, (that is, output), subjects had to match pictured words on the basis of phonemic and semantic similarity. Results showed that the pattern of phonemic and semantic impairment observed within individual aphasic syndromes was generally consistent with their overt speech and language behaviour. Of particular interest was that the phonemic matching task presented particular difficulty for all aphasic groups regardless of type. Further studies into phonemic output processing may hold the key to the...
A total of 364 children, grouped in one year increments from five through 13 years of age, were compared to a group of 47 adult aphasic subjects on the Revised Token Test. The purpose for comparing the child groups to the aphasic group was to systematically assess a Language Processing Regression Hypothesis whereby a reduced efficiency of language processing in aphasia was compared to an increased level of language processing as a function of increased age of the normal children. Using discriminant analyses, the patterns of test performance were compared between the aphasic and each of the child groups. The number of subjects misclassified (children as adult aphasic, or adult, aphasic as children) was minimal for all of the comparisons and serves as counterevidence for the Regression Hypothesis. The numbers of subjects correctly classified into their respective groups was low for comparisons with the 5 through 9 year groups, where the bulk of the subjects were unclassifiable. However, a precipitous rise i...
Aphasia refers to an impairment of language processing resulting from brain damage. A very common symptom observed in aphasic speech is the presence of phonemic paraphasias, i.e., phonemic errors involving the substitution, addition or syncope of one (or more) segment(s) in a word stimulus. Phonemic paraphasias can be found across multiple tasks (repetition, reading aloud, spontaneous speech, picture naming) that require a subject to produce a word sound. They are not specific to a particular type of aphasia since Broca’s aphasics, Wernicke’s aphasics, conduction aphasics, and mixed aphasics all produce phonemic paraphasias (see Lecours et al 1983).
Three studies examined amnesic H.M.'s use of words, phrases, and propositions on the Test of Language Competence (TLC). In Study 1, H.M. used 19 lexical categories (e.g., common nouns, verbs) and one syntactic category (noun phrases) with the same relative frequency as memory-normal controls, he used no lexical or syntactic category with less-than-normal frequency, and he used proper names (e.g., Melanie) and coordinative conjunctions (e.g., and) with reliably greater-than-normal frequency. In Study 2, H.M. overused proper names relative to controls when answering episodic memory questions about childhood experiences in speech and writing, replicating and extending Study 1 results for proper names. Based on detailed analyses of the use (and misuse) of coordinating conjunctions on the TLC, Study 3 developed a syntax-level "compensation hypothesis" for explaining why H.M. overused coordinating conjunctions relative to controls in Study 1. Present results suggested that (a) frontal mechanisms for retrieving word-, phrase-, and propositional-categories are intact in H.M., unlike in category-specific aphasia, (b) using his intact retrieval mechanisms, H.M. has developed a never-previously-observed proposition-level free association strategy to compensate for the hippocampal region damage that has impaired his mechanisms for encoding novel linguistic structures, and (c) H.M.'s overuse of proper names warrants further research.
Although amnesic H.M. typically could not recall where or when he met someone, he could recall their topics of conversation after long interference-filled delays, suggesting impaired encoding for some categories of novel events but not others. Similarly, H.M. successfully encoded into internal representations (sentence plans) some novel linguistic structures but not others in the present language production studies. For example, on the Test of Language Competence (TLC), H.M. produced uncorrected errors when encoding a wide range of novel linguistic structures, e.g., violating reliably more gender constraints than memory-normal controls when encoding referent-noun, pronoun-antecedent, and referent-pronoun anaphora, as when he erroneously and without correction used the gender-inappropriate pronoun "her" to refer to a man. In contrast, H.M. never violated corresponding referent-gender constraints for proper names, suggesting that his mechanisms for encoding proper name gender-agreement were intact. However, H.M. produced no more dysfluencies, off-topic comments, false starts, neologisms, or word and phonological sequencing errors than controls on the TLC. Present results suggest that: (a) frontal mechanisms for retrieving and sequencing word, phrase, and phonological categories are intact in H.M., unlike in category-specific aphasia; (b) encoding mechanisms in the hippocampal region are category-specific rather than item-specific, applying to, e.g., proper names rather than words; (c) H.M.'s category-specific mechanisms for encoding referents into words, phrases, and propositions are impaired, with the exception of referent gender, person, and number for encoding proper names; and (d) H.M. overuses his intact proper name encoding mechanisms to compensate for his impaired mechanisms for encoding other functionally equivalent linguistic information.
An ongoing research project designed to test Jakobson's claim of a universal rank order among the elements of phonological systems is described and illustrated. The strategy is that of close analysis, on surface, feature and neuromuscular levels successively, of phonetically deviant L2 performance data. While the first two analytical stages tend to corroborate the existence of widely valid cross-language constraints, the third yields evidence for an explanatory hypothesis in terms of the properties of participant neuromuscular mechanisms. It is argued that this ‘physiological hypothesis’ is superior to rival ‘nativist’ postulates in placing Jakobson's hierarchy on a firm ontological footing.
The present study provides a preliminary descriptive analysis of the production errors classified as ‘no source’ sound substitutions in the speech of a single conduction aphasic patient. Acoustic analyses of the errors as well as correct productions of the substituted sounds and on-target productions were conducted to examine whether the paraphasic errors were true substitution errors or instead reflected errors of articulatory implementation. Preliminary findings revealed that most perceived substitutions exhibited acoustic characteristics appropriate to the substituted sound, and thus most likely reflect true phoneme selection errors. Results are discussed in relation to the underlying nature of paraphasic errors in conduction aphasia and the phenomenon of phonemic false evaluation.
If you were trained as a philosopher and were suddenly bereft of speech, writing and reading, how would you feel? Would you feel a sensation of death, or Nirvana, or unconscious or conscious loss of control? Would you feel scientifically objective, or full of Aristotelian wonder? Would you think you were having a supernatural experience?
Die Broca-Aphasie ist durch Strungen auf allen Ebenen der linguistischen Beschreibung (Phonologie, Syntax, Lexikon) charakterisiert. Diese Strungen zeigen sich nicht nur beim Sprechen, sondern auch beim Verstehen, Schreiben und Lesen. Daneben kommen Sprechstrungen (Dysarthrie) vor, die auf einer zentralen Innervationsstrung der Phonationsund Artikulationsmuskeln beruhen. Das fr die Differentialdiagnose gegenber anderen Aphasieformen entscheidende Merkmal ist der Agrammatismus.Broca's aphasia is characterized by disorders on the phonemic, syntactic and lexical level of linguistic description. It is not only the patient's speech which is impaired; abilities to comprehend, read and write are likewise impaired. Articulatory disorders (dysarthria) which are due to an impaired innervation of the phonatory and articulatory musculature may exist. However these disorders do not account for all the linguistic deficits found in cases of Broca's aphasia. The characteristic feature enabling a differential diagnosis of Broca's aphasia is agrammatism.
This paper analyses the incidence and distribution of phonemic misordering errors (or ''contextual'' errors) in the phonologically related nonword responses of aphasic individuals. A diverse group of 22 individuals was examined in two separate picture naming studies. Contextual error rates were found to be above chance for only two of the participants. These participants had one unique feature: both were more accurate at word endings than word beginnings. Both also had a diagnosis of conduction aphasia and produced errors that were phonologically close to their targets, and at least one showed strong word length effects; however, none of these features was unique to them. The ''contextual'' individuals were not distinguishable from the other participants on the basis of: their production of formal paraphasias; their relative performance on word naming and repetition; or their performance on words relative to nonwords. The findings from this study are inconsistent with the notion that contextual errors result from a malfunction involving a dedicated postlexical phoneme sequencing stage. An alternative, single-stage account of phonological encoding is offered, in which differences in contextual error rates are attributed to individual variation in word production strategies.
Single word speech intelligibility was evaluated in three groups : aphasia with apraxia of speech, aphasia with no apraxia of speech, and normal controls. Intelligibility was significantly lower in the two aphasic groups compared with the normal group and intelligibility did not differ significantly between the aphasia and apraxia of speech and the aphasia only groups. Seventy per cent of the speakers with apraxia of speech obtained intelligibility scores below the normal range and 80% of the speakers with aphasia only obtained intelligibility scores within the normal range. There was a moderate, but statistically nonsignificant, correlation between intelligibility and severity of apraxia of speech on an eight-point rating scale.
Recent acoustic analyses of fundamental frequency contours of both lef hemisphere damaged aphasic patients and right-hemisphere damaged non-aphasic patients have provided new data to further our understanding of brain and language mechanisms. The literature, however, is complex and even, in certain aspects, somewhat contradictory. This article attempts to assess the present ‘state-of-the-art’ of such studies, in order to provide a framework for directing future research.
The phenomenon of phonemic false evaluation has been appreciated since the latter part of the 19th century, when it was first observed that hearers quite often assign speech sounds produced by speakers to phonemic units different from the ones intended by speakers. This speaker-hearer mismatch had occasioned serious problems for the first linguistic analyses of American Indian languages. Early in the 20th century, N. Trubetzkoy coined the term ‘phonemic false evaluation’, and elaborated upon it in his characterizations and comparisons of the phonological systems of a vast array of languages of the world. The present paper is an attempt to show that phonemic false evaluation can represent a stumbling block in the analysis of aphasia, since as we demonstrate, many subphonemic articulatory aberrations produced by aphasic speakers are perceived by hearers as higher level phonemic substitutions—substitutions quite often never intended by the aphasic. The theoretical and diagnostic consequences of phonemic false evaluation are subsequently considered for the description, analysis and evaluation of aphasia.
This chapter begins with a short review of two current methods for the study of brain language relations. It moves on to syntactic deficits in Broca's aphasia, which is argued to be restricted to syntactic movement (aka grammatical transformations). It then reviews the current experimental record in neuroimaging of the healthy brain in Broca's region and seeks convergence with the aphasia results. It considers two recent findings that have located certain intrasentential dependency relations in different portions of the right hemisphere. These results drive the conclusion that a rough brain map for syntax may be within reach. Finally, the chapter proposes dimensions along which the syntacto-topic conjecture (STC) may be explored by examining how visual maps are currently investigated. © 2006 by Yosef Grodzinsky and Katrin Amunts. All rights reserved.
It was indeed the merit of Roman Jakobson to draw aphasiology away from the mere surface description of symptoms and to provide the first interpretations of aphasics’ language disturbances in a linguistically motivated way (Jakobson, 1942). As far as segmental errors are concerned, he was thus able to interpret the nature of phonemic paraphasias by resorting
to such linguistic theoretical constructs as features and markedness through which could be understood, for instance, the preferential tendencies often observed (on the paradigmatic axis) in
phonemic substitutions, something that his predecessors —mainly clinicians — could not do! In the same way, although with
less sophistication, (a) consonantal omissions within clusters were interpreted as simplification of so-called “syntagmatic” patterns and (b) some displacements of segments as assimilations such as the ones philologists had been observing for years in diachronic studies.
A number of elements have been suggested as units of sublexical processing during planning for speech production, some derived from grammatical theory and some from observed variations and constancies in the acoustic and articulatory patterns of speech. Candidates range from muscle-group control mechanisms to distinctive features, individual phonemic segments, diphones, demisyllables, syllable onsets and rhymes, and even syllables themselves. Proposals vary widely, partly because different levels of processing are being modeled, but also because the production planning process is highly complex, and our understanding of its many aspects is still quite rudimentary. To cite just a few areas where our models are particularly primitive, little is known about the planning mechanisms that might impose serial order on abstractly represented units, those that integrate adjacent elements with each other, those that coordinate all of the factors influencing segment duration, and those that compute motor commands; even less is known about the relationships among such possible processing components.
Neologistic jargon aphasia has resisted clear and unambiguous treatment since the syndrome has been recognized. The puzzles that remain in the analysis of this syndrome are due in large measure to the elusive native of the neologism itself. Where does it come from? Or better yet, where could it come from? The present paper attempts to demonstrate that several sources for the production of neologisms are plausible, but focuses upon two possibilities only. The first possible source is some sort of random generator, which is capable of producing syllable strings to serve as surrogate lexical items when the patient cannot access target lexical representations. The second possible source is the mechanism of phonemic paraphasia, which operates on an accessed lexical representation in such a way that it transforms its segmental structure variously. Two types of neologism are distinguished: the ‘target-related’ neologism, where the target has not been rendered unrecognizable, and the ‘abstruse’ neologism, where the target is not recognizable. The target-related neologism is rather uncontroversial; it stems from phonemic paraphasia. The abstruse neologism, on the other hand, is the truly recalcitrant item, since its source is much more recondite. The paper explores some possible reasons for why we might need a random generator in normality, under the assumption that new mechanisms are not created by brain lesions. In addition, the processes of phonemic paraphasia are explored in terms of syllabic structure constraints, and several principles are suggested to account for the nature of certain kinds of phonemic paraphasias–specifically the doublet-creating error.
Die Wernicke-Aphasie ist bei aller Variabilitt des Sprach-verhaltens als einheitliches Syndrom zu beschreiben. Nach den Kriterien: Verstndlichkeit, phonematische und semantische Paraphasien in der Spontansprache lassen sich 4 Erscheinungsformen unterscheiden:Wernicke-Aphasie mit vorwiegend semantischen Paraphasien,Wernicke-Aphasie mit semantischem Jargon,Wernicke-Aphasie mit vorwiegend phonematischen Paraphasien,Wernicke-Aphasie mit phonematischem Jargon.Allen 4 Formen sind schwere Strungen im Sprachverstndnis gemeinsam. In der Sprachproduktion tritt neben den phonematischen und semantischen Paraphasien als wesentliches Merkmal der Paragrammatismus auf. Nach einem berblick ber die Lokalisation der Schdigung und frhere Beschreibungsmodelle werden fr die charakteristischen Symptome der Wernicke-Aphasie neurolinguistische Erklrungen vorgeschlagen.Despite the variability of its behavioral manifestations Wernicke's aphasia is considered to be a unitary syndrome. According to the criteria of intelligibility, phonemic and semantic paraphasias in spontaneous speech, 4 forms of Wernicke's aphasia are differentiated: 1) with predominantly semantic paraphasias, 2) with semantic jargon, 3) with predominantly phonemic paraphasias and 4) with phonemic jargon. A severe deficit in language understanding is common to all 4 forms. In addition to phonemic and semantic paraphasias paragrammatism is an outstanding feature of the language production in Wernicke's aphasia. After a survey of views about the localization of the lesion and of earlier descriptive models a neurolinguistic explanation of the characteristic symptoms of Wernicke's aphasia is suggested.
A recent theory of lexical access in picture naming maintains that all nonword errors are generated during the retrieval of phonemic segments from the lexicon (Dell, Schwartz, Martin, Saffran, & Gagnon, 1997b). This theory is challenged by "dual origin" theories that postulate a second, post-lexical mechanism, whose disruption gives rise to "phonemic paraphasias" bearing close resemblance to the target. We tested the dual origin theory in a corpus of 457 nonword errors drawn from 18 subjects with fluent aphasia. The corpus was divided into two parts, based on degree of phonological overlap between error and target, and these parts were separately examined for proposed diagnostic characteristics of the postlexical error mechanism: serial order effects across the word, sensitivity to target length, and insensitivity to target frequency. Results did not support the dual origin theory but were consistent with a single, lexical origin account in which segment retrieval operates from left to right, rather than in parallel. Findings from this study also shed new light on how individual differences in the severity of the retrieval deficit modulate the expression of phonological errors in relation to target characteristics.
Neuropsychology, the study of behavioral and mental disorders resulting from brain damage, seeks to integrate observable mental and motor functions with knowledge of nervous system structure and function. The first part of this paper deals with the empirical and theoretical contributions that arise from the study of classical clinical syndromes, from cognitive psychology based on information processing, and from the computationally-based study of complex cognitive systems such as language. The second part of this paper deals with two areas of neuropsychological research, memory mechanisms and motor behavior, that exemplify some of the methodological and conceptual problems that arise in trying to bridge animal and human studies, or psychological and physiological levels of analysis. Suggestions are made for how greater progress can be made by considering fundamental processes, and, by focusing on levels of abstraction useful to both the psychologist and the biologist. The last part of the paper briefly discusses some of the major issues involved in an attempt to establish a neurobiologically-based theory of human behavioral and mental function.
The single word repetition of two fluent aphasics was evaluated to explore the nature of their lexical-phonological deficit. Phonological theory postulates that features, subcomponents of segments, are organized hierarchically according to their acoustic and articulatory properties and their role in the phonological system. This study hypothesized that the higher a feature sits in the hierarchy, the more stable it will be following neurological damage, and the less likely it is to be substituted independently of other features. Analyses focused on the status of the feature sonorant, for the following two reasons: (1) this feature is located at the top of the feature hierarchy; and (2) unlike other consonant features, it plays an important role in syllable structure by constraining the ordering of consonants within syllables. The pattern of feature substitutions produced by the two subjects in this study was identical, with the order of least to most affected type conforming to the predictions based on the feature hierarchy: Consonant substitution errors due to a change in the value of the feature sonorant were rare, and when this feature change, it generally occurred in conjunction with changes to other features. By contrast, place of articulation, a feature that sits low in the hierarchy, was the most frequent feature substituted, and was typically altered without changing the other feature values of the affected consonant. Moreover, when sonorant feature substitutions and consonant omissions did occur, they most often produced a syllable with a less complex sonority pattern. These findings strengthen the notion that the relative preservation of sonority, both at the segmental and syllabic levels, contributes to the normal sounding quality of the neologisms produced by even the most severe jargonaphasics.
Aphasic phonological errors have received considerable attention in the literature. Linguistic analysis of phonological production errors has been largely based on the distinctive feature framework. Phonological process analysis has been demontrated to be an effective approach in child phonology. Process analysis focuses on the strategies which result in phonological error, rather than on the error itself. Few studies have attempted to apply process analysis to the phonological errors of adult aphasics. This paper applies process analysis to the phonemic paraphasias of posterior lesion aphasics from six published studies. Clinical and research implications are presented.
Groups of right hemisphere damaged, left hemisphere damaged aphasic and normal control subjects were assessed on a series of tests designed to examine discrimination and production of different aspects of linguistic prosody. These included lexical stress, intonation, emphatic stress, lexical stress in sentence contexts, language identification using prosodic cues, and prosody in discourse. The right hemisphere damaged subjects were significantly impaired on all of the tests as compared to the control subjects. Furthermore, they were impaired as compared to the left hemisphere damaged aphasic subjects on some of the tests. The results support the notion that the right hemisphere has an important role in the processing of linguistic prosody.
The intrinsic organization of sequences of phonemic approximations (SPAs) to a single target were studied in a conduction (C1), and two Wernicke's (W1–W2) aphasic patients. Thirty-eight SPAs recorded in conversational speech were analyzed. New methods of analysis were proposed in order to investigate different aspects of these SPAs, such as the degree of approximation to the target, the length of the SPAs, the sensitivity to the number of syllables of the target word and different aspects of phonological information. The analysis revealed that different kinds of SPAs may be distinguished according to their degree of intrinsic organization. Results provide some information as to the functioning of monitoring feedback mechanisms implied in on-line processes of speech production.
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