Andrew Radford - Linguistics An Introduction [Second Edition]

‘agrammatism’, literally meaning ‘lack of grammar’, is in fact a misnomer.

Agrammatics have a grammar that is selectively impaired, but the architecture of the system is identical to that of linguistically normal people. A similar point can be made for paraphasias, i.e. errors in content-word usage typically occurring in Wernicke’s aphasics. The relevant variables controlling content-word usage in aphasics are the same as for normal subjects, namely word frequency, semantic similarity and categorisation level, thus showing that the basic structure of the

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mental lexicon does not globally change as a result of the impairment. In the case of SLI, the development of inflection is selectively impaired: the acquisition of regular inflection causes more problems than learning irregulars, and inflectional morphemes encoding tense/agreement seem to be more adversely affected than

pluralisation morphemes. The precise basis for this selectivity awaits further insight.

Exercises

1.

Agrammatism (in Broca’s aphasia) is characterised by the omission of

function words. Explain and assess this claim in the light of findings

from languages other than English.

2.

In 1881, the neuropsychologist T. Ribot postulated that cognitive

capacities which are acquired early in life, for example by children

at around the age of two, are lost relatively late in cases of brain

damage, whereas cognitive capacities which are acquired later in

life, for example by ten-year-olds, are the first to be lost as a conse-

quence of trauma to the brain. This idea came to be known as the

‘regression hypothesis’. In essence, it says that patients with brain

damage fall back to an earlier stage of normal cognitive develop-

ment. Below is a summary (from de Villiers 1974) of the order of acquisition in children and difficulty for aphasics of a number of

grammatical morphemes. Amplify what this summary is claiming

and discuss whether or not the findings support the regression

hypothesis.

Level of difficulty

Acquisition

in aphasia

order in children

Progressive -ing

1

2

Plural -s

2

1

Articles (a, the)

3

5

Regular past tense

4

4

Irregular past tense

5

3

Third singular -s

6

6

(1 = easiest, 6 = most difficult)

3.

Word-finding difficulties such as those seen in Wernicke’s aphasia are

also characteristic of a type of aphasia called anomia. Analyse the

word classes that cause particular difficulties exhibited by an anomic

patient’s attempt at describing the picture shown below and how he

tries to deal with these difficulties. Discuss how anomia, as charac-

terised here, differs from agrammatism.

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words

First of all this is falling down, just about, and is gonna fall down and

they’re both getting something to eat … but the trouble is this is gonna

let go and they’re both gonna fall down … I can’t see well enough but I

believe that either she or will have some food that’s not good for you and

she’s to get some for her, too … and that you get it there because they

shouldn’t go up there and get it unless you tell them that they could have

it. And so this is falling down and for sure there’s one they’re going to

have for food and, and this didn’t come out right, the uh, the stuff that’s

uh, good for, it’s not good for you but it, but you love, um mum mum

[smacks lips] … and that so they’ve … see that, I can’t see whether it’s

in there or not … I think she’s saying, I want two or three, I want one, I

think, I think so, and so, so she’s gonna get this one for sure it’s gonna

fall down there or whatever, she’s gonna get that one and, and there, he’s

gonna get one himself or more, it all depends with this when they fall

down … and when it falls down there’s no problem, all they got to do is

fix it and go right back up and get some more.

(Used with permission from Pro-Ed – Goodglass, Kaplan and Barresi,

Boston Diagnostic Aphasia Examination, Third Edition)

4.

Design an object-naming experiment to elicit paraphasias from

Wernicke’s aphasics. Comment on at least the following points:

experimental procedure/design

subjects (number of subjects, control group, selection criteria,

pretests, etc.)

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materials (test items, control items, pictures, oral v. visual presen-

tation, etc.)

theoretical assumptions (explain your views on paraphasias)

predictions (explain the expected results of the specific experiment

given your assumptions)

Try the experiment on your friends and/or relatives. It might be unwise

to diagnose any of them as aphasic!

5.

In a study of twelve SLI children ranging in age from 8 years, 2 months

to 12 years, 11 months, Bishop (1994) reports that with existing irregular verbs in past tense contexts, the same children sometimes

alternated between producing the correct irregular past form and

producing a bare form, as illustrated in (a) and (b). Bishop also observed errors such as those in (c) to (f):

(a) Took it off (in reply to ‘What did they do with the top part of the

pram?’)

(b) It take me a long time (in reply to ‘Did it take you a long time to get

better?)

(c) And then Mummy taked to the garage

(d) He falled in (in reply to ‘What did Andrew do when the ice gave

way?’)

(e) He sawed mine brother (in reply to ‘Has the doctor ever been to

see you?’)

(f) The car has broked down

Discuss the implications of these data for the idea that morphological

rules are selectively impaired in SLI.

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Lexical variation and change

Variation in language is multidimensional. In sections 3 and 4, we have looked at how variation in social structure is reflected in the sound patterns of language and how this variation is often indicative of language change in progress. We have also seen how geographical variation in language is caused by different levels of contact between different peoples at different times. In this section, we are interested in variation in words and in their origins, meanings and contexts of use. We’ll also examine change in both the choice of words and the meanings of those words.

Borrowing words

What is the origin of words like shampoo, pizza, alcohol and curry?

When did they enter the English language? And why? Almost certainly, you will be able to answer these questions for at least some of these words, but we can ask the same questions with respect to words which are much less ‘exotic’. According to published counts of word frequencies, the items listed in (210) are among the most frequently occurring nouns in English:

(210)

people, way, water, word, man, day, part, place, things, years, number, name, home, air, line

All these words have been part of the English language for centuries, and while most of them date back to Germanic languages which preceded the separate

development of English, some had their origins in Latin (part, place and air, for example). Throughout its history, English has been adding to its lexicon by acquiring new words from other, often unrelated, languages. Risotto and pizza come from Italian, vodka from Russian, goulash from Hungarian, coffee and

yoghurt from Turkish, alcohol and sherbet from Arabic, sago from Malay,

ketchup/catsup from Chinese and tomato from Nahuatl (a central American

language, already observed to have been the language of the Aztecs). These new words are known as borrowings. Of course, as well as having borrowed thousands of words, English has been a great provider too, much to the annoyance, for