Elsevier

Cognition

Volume 26, Issue 1, June 1987, Pages 1-37
Cognition

Paragrammatisms

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Abstract

Grammatically incorrect sentences (paragrammatisms) are characteristic of the spontaneous speech of fluent aphasics. The paragrammatisms produced by five neologistic jargon aphasics are analysed and compared to the paragrammatisms of four normal control subjects. We show that the paragrammatisms of the aphasics are qualitatively identical to the grammatical errors of normal subjects, although they are much more frequent. The reason for this is discussed in terms of models of speech production; we argue that paragrammatisms are a consequence of a breakdown in the control processes.

Résumé

Les phrases grammaticalement incorrectes (paragrammatismes) sont caractéristiques du langage spontané de certains aphasiques. Les paragrammatismes produits par cinq aphasiques a “jargon néologique” ont été compares aux paragrammatismes de quatre sujets normaux de contrôle. Nous montrons que les paragrammatismes des aphasiques sont qualitativement identiques aux erreurs grammaticales des sujets normaux, mais qu'ils sont beaucoup plus frequents. Une explication est proposée en termes de modèles de production de la parole; nous essayons de montrer que les paragrammatismes sont la consequence d'une défaillance des processus de contrôle.

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  • Cited by (0)

    We are grateful to Dr. Crawley, consultant physician at Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge for permission to study JF and NS; to Sir Roger Bannister, consultant physician at the National Hospital, Queen's Square, for permission to study KC; and to Dr. M.I.P. Wilkinson and Dr. N.E. Gilchrist, consultants at the Eastern Hospital, Hackney, for permission to study DJ and KP. We thank Janis Morris, speech therapist at the Eastern Hospital for assessing DJ, Corinne Garvey, speech therapist at Addenbrooke's Hospital for assessing NS and Helen Petrie for providing tapes and transcripts of the comparison subjects and for discussing the error analysis with us. This work was supported by a grant from the Medical Research Council. A version of this paper was presented at the 1984 European Neuropsychology Workshop at Bressanone; we are grateful for all the comments we received.

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