The study of homophones--words with different meanings that sound the same--has great potential to inform models of language production. Of particular relevance is a phenomenon termed "frequency" inheritance, where a low-frequency word (e.g., "deer") is produced more fluently than would be expected based on its frequency…

This volume is both a state-of-the-art display of current thinking on second language development as a complex system. It is also a tribute to Diane Larsen-Freeman for her decades of intellectual leadership in the academic disciplines of applied linguistics and second language acquisition. The chapters therein range from theoretical expositions to…

Many recent models of language comprehension have stressed the role of distributional frequencies in determining the relative accessibility or ease of processing associated with a particular lexical item or sentence structure. However, there exist relatively few comprehensive analyses of structural frequencies, and little consideration has been…

A survey of the historical developments of linguistic theories relating to aphasia. Some topics covered are: the breakdown of language as opposed to acquisition of language; functional structuralism basic to neurolinguistics; analysis of language disorders; neurolinguistics--models and typology; aphasia and agraphia. (Text is in French.) (AMH)

THIS EXPERIMENT IS DESIGNED TO ULTIMATELY ESTABLISH A TECHNIQUE FOR STUDYING THE APHASIC'S ABILITY TO DEMONSTRATE HIS GRAMMATICAL COMPETENCE. HOWEVER, BEFORE EXPOSING APHASICS TO THE TASK, AN EXPERIMENT WAS CARRIED OUT WITH NORMAL SUBJECTS (COLLEGE STUDENTS) TO OBTAIN BASELINE DATA. THE MAIN PURPOSE OF THE PRESENT STUDY WAS TO DETERMINE WHETHER…

A study of graphic disorders observed afflicted with cortical lesions. The topics discussed are: elements of graphic activity, linguistic theories on the relationship between written and spoken language and the principal theses of aphasiologists on disorders in written language. A bibliography is attached. (Text is in French.) (AMH)

This article presents a linguistic description of the phenomenon of dyssyntaxia. (Text is in French.) (CLK)

A discussion of grammatical disorders in aphasia considers an area of ambiguity. In the work of one researcher, impairment of logico-grammatical relations is associated with semantic aphasia, not efferent-motor aphasia. In Western studies, efferent-motor aphasia is associated with impaired comprehension and production of grammar. In order to…

Summarizes the results of Finnish studies dealing with single-word experiments with aphasics as well as lexical decisions and eye-movement registration tests performed on normals. It then proposes a processing model for Finnish nouns, Stem Allomorph/Inflectional Decomposition (SAID), which predicts that both inflected and productive derived forms…

Two studies are reported in which the following theory is tested: the agrammatic sentence form that is observed in the spontaneous speech of Broca's aphasics is attributable to the selection of elliptical syntactic structures in which the slots for many of the closed-class words that appear in complete sentences are lacking. (54 references)…

Compares speech-related (coverbal) gestures in brain-damaged patients (aphasics and visuo-spatial deficits) and in matched controls. Results suggest ideational gestures probably facilitate word retrieval and reflect transfer of information between propositional and non-propositional representations during message construction, and that conceptual…

Spoken narratives as a genre usually show literary stylistic features. Written/literary registers are characterized by lexical density whereas spoken/colloquial genres are characterized by the complex combination of simple clauses into clause complexes. It has been observed that when aiming at informationally dense speech, people often hesitate…

This book examines how the brain enables people to speak creatively and build up an understanding of language. The discussion looks at the linguistic and neuro-anatomical underpinnings of language and considers how language skills can systematically break down in individuals with different types of brain damage. By studying children with language…

Two studies of adult aphasia, focusing on phonological disturbances, are presented. In the first study, subjects were 15 adults wit moderate aphasia and five age-matched controls. A variety of speech production and speech perception tests were administered, including tests of syllable discrimination, auditive word-picture matching, articulation,…