Morphological Deficits in Aphasia: Problems of Representation, Access or Integration?

Abstract

A considerable amount of recent work in aphasia has focused on one particular “type” of aphasic deficit known as “agrammatism”. Agrammatism is typically characterised in terms of the speech output of the patient. If an aphasic patient produces slow, hesitant, syntactically simple speech which contains very few grammatical morphemes, then this patient is usually given the label “agrammatic”. Although there has been considerable debate as to whether agrammatism constitutes a distinct syndrome, this issue remains unresolved (cf. Caramazza 1984). However, the label continues to be used as a useful way of describing the general characteristics of the speech output of certain patients, although it currently carries little explanatory weight.

I thank DE and JG for their patience at enduring so many years of testing, Mary Cooke for carrying out many of the studies reported here, and the MRC (UK) for their generous support over the years.