APHASIA ON A LINGUISTIC PERSPECTIVE

Erica Evers

LOCATION OF LANGUAGE IN THE BRAIN Language is said to acquire in both the

right and the left hemisphere. Right Hemisphere Functions: Intonation,

pragmatic, and contextual Left Hemisphere Functions:

grammar/vocabulary and literal Parts of the Brain consist of the frontal

lobe, temporal lobe, occipital lobe, parietal lobe, cerebellum. The main two parts for major types of aphasia are located in the frontal and the temporal lobe.

WHAT IS APHASIA? Is a language disorder that results in brain

damage caused by disease or trauma” (Fromkin, Rodman, Hyams 46).

TERMSLateralization-is the term to be used when

defining the function to one hemisphere of the brain

Anomia-not being able to find the word that one wishes to say

WERNICKE’S AREA

Characteristics:Produce fluent speech and intonationSemantically (meaning) incoherentDifficulty naming objects in front of themDifficulty choosing words in spontaneous speechLexical Errors (word substitutions) Produces Jargon and nonsense words.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67HMx-TdAZI&feature=related

BROCA’S AREACharacteristics:Word-finding difficultiesAffects ability to form sentencesLack of articles, prepositions, pronouns, aux verbs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67HMx-TdAZI&feature=related

BOSTON CLASSIFICATION OF APHASIA

Broca’sFluency in spontaneous speech is impairedRepetition is limitedNaming is limitedComprehension is intact

Wernicke’s Fluency in

spontaneous speech is intactRepetition is

impairedNaming is impairedComprehension is

impaired

LINGUISTICALLY SPEAKING

SEMANTICS: MEANING Errors in picture

naming orally, written, and dictation.

Stimulus: tableResponse: Orally: chairWritten: talbDictation:tamble

Stimulus: Mittens

Response:Orally: gloveWritten: mi..m.ttsDictation: mittn

EXAMPLES OF SEMANTIC ERRORS lobster=turtle Carrot=tomato Axe=hammer Church=house doorknob=key Bee=spider Bowl=plate Seal=fish

Nose=hand Airplane=train Lettuce=tomato Crab=clam Butter=cream Razor=knife Thumb=wrist Sponge=soap

CONCLUSION

Overall Aphasia causes semantic errors orally, written, and dictation.

Each patient is different. Some have less errors than others.

Damage to the Wernicke’s area is more semantically incoherent than the Broca’s, but can be present in any location of the brain.

Could cause depression and other altered behavior.

PHONOLOGY Errors in phonological status affects the

vowel length and the sonority (producing sound.)

Tendency to simplify consonant clusters. Hard time distinguishing between

voiced and voiceless.for example: pet and bet.

SYNTAX Within syntactical aphasia many patients

have a hard time understanding complex sentences.

Broca’s area suffer from the lack of syntax Agrammatic (lacks articles, prepositions,

pronouns, aux verbs) Omits inflectional morphemes EXAMPLE:

Doctor: Could you tell me what you have been doing in the hospital?

Patient: Yes, sure. Me go, er, uh, P.T. (physical therapy) none o’cot, speech….two times….read…r…..ripe…..rike….uh….write…practice…get…ting….better.

BILINGUAL/POLYGLOT

APHASIA

TERMS OF RECOVERY OF BILINGUAL APHASIA Parallel Recovery-the strength of the

language before the aphasia recovers in the same way. Example English Native and French as an L2. English would return the stronger one.

Differential-one language is recovered stronger than the other one before the aphasia.

Blending-uncontrollable mixing of grammar of both languages with the intent of only speaking one.

Selective-language loss only in one language

Successive-language recovery in one language.

CASES 34 year old woman-mother tongue

Hungarian. Spoke French as a child. English as an adolescent and Hebrew from age 19. Removal of posterior temporal tumor. Exhibited symptoms of Broca’s in English. Wernicke’s in Hebrew and intermediate symptoms in the other two.

CASES A 47 year old male with native tongue of

Hungarian also spoke Hebrew, Polish, Rumanian, Yiddish, German, and English. After removing a cyst on his left parietal lobe the patient exhibited severe deficits in all languages except English in which he was fluent with some word-finding difficulties. His comprehension for English, Hungarian, German and Yiddish were good, but very poor in Rumanian, Hebrew and Polish.

CONCLUSION OF BILINGUAL APHASIA It is not definite in these cases why some

languages were recovered. Some say the structure of the language have something to do with it, but overall it is a new study.

It is important to treat it by attempting to recover each language individually.

A hypothesis and some MRI’s say that it is possible that L2 and L3 languages are stored in a different hemisphere than the L1.

OVERALL People can recover from aphasia, but in

bilinguals each individual language needs to be separate.

Each person with aphasia has a unique case and in bilinguals it is not definite what language will recover first, but the theory is that the native tongue will return first.

Language plays a major role in our lives and without the ability to communicate fully is very difficult and can lead to depression.

Aphasia affects people’s oral and written ability to produce language.

SOURCES Dave, Prachi. "The Implications of Bilinguality and Bilingual Aphasia." Serendip.

2007. Web. 30 Nov. 2010. <http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/exchange/node/1902#5>.

Fabbro, Franco. "The Bilingual Brain: Bilingual Aphasia." University of Udine Italy, 2001. Web. 30 Nov. 2010. <http://www.uniurb.it/lingue/matdid/donati/LinguisticaGenerale/2006-07/bilinguismo2.pdf>.

Fromkin, Victoria, Robert Rodman, and Nina M. Hyams. An Introduction to Language. Boston, MA: Thomson Wadsworth, 2007. Print.

Lesser, Ruth. Linguistic Investigations of Aphasia. New York: Elsevier, 1978. Print.

Lorenzen, Bonnie, and Laura Murray. "Bilingual Aphasia: Theory, Research, & Its Application to Clinical Practice." Bilingual Aphasia: Theory, Research, & Its Application to Clinical Practice. Indiana University, 1993. Web. 29 Nov. 2010. <http://www.eshow2000.com/asha/2008/handouts/1420_1100Lorenzen_Bonnie_089791_Nov17_2008_Time_021320PM.pdf>.

Paradis, Michel. Readings on Aphasia in Bilinguals and Polyglots. [Canada?]: Didier, 1983. Print.

Visch-Brink, Evy G., and Roelien Bastiaanse. Linguistic Levels in Aphasiology. San Diego: Singular Pub., 1998. Print.

"YouTube - Wernicke's and Broca's Aphasia." YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. Web. 30 Nov. 2010. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67HMx-TdAZI&feature=related>.