Shula Chiat

Words, nonwords, and phonological processes: Some comments on Gathercole, Willis, Emslie, and Baddeley

Gathercole, Willis, Emslie, and Baddeley (1991) present a reanalysis of some of their earlier data concerned with the relationship between nonword repetition and the development of vocabulary knowledge in young children. In the present article we outline some theoretical differences between ourselves and this group in the interpretation of nonword repetition and discuss how best these differences could be resolved.

Mapping theories of developmental language impairment: Premises, predictions and evidence

This paper presents the case for a mapping theory of developmental language impairment, which branches into a theory that Specific Language Impairment (SLI) arises from impaired phonological processing and the consequent disruption of the mapping process through which the words and sentence structure of a language are established. The prelude to the case is that the mapping process, which is a sine qua non of language acquisition, is the first place to look for possible sources of deficits in language acquisition; that recent research on the mapping process points up the contribution of complex phonological processing not just in the segmentation and representation of lexical phonology, but in wider lexical and syntactic development; and that phonological processing is therefore a plausible source of the deficits observed in SLI. Detailed analysis of the mapping process and the role of phonological processing gives rise to specific predictions which are evaluated against wide-ranging research findings on children with SLI. It is argued that the phonological theory provides a better fit with this empirical evidence than theories which posit either specific grammatical deficits or low-level auditory processing deficits, and offers more far-reaching insights than theories which invoke a general limitation in processing capacity. The paper concludes with wider implications, further predictions, and further questions arising from the mapping theory of developmental language impairment and its particular instantiation in the phonological theory of SLI.

Calling a salad a federation: An investigation of semantic jargon. Part 1—nouns

Abstract This paper describes an individual with semantic jargon aphasia (RG). His output was largely composed from real words, but in very anomalous combinations. Preliminary investigations suggested severe word finding and comprehension problems for nouns, which were underpinned by a semantic deficit. Despite this, his speech often featured abstract terms. Subsequent tests showed that his comprehension and production were either unaffected by abstractness or aided by it. For example, when naming from definitions, he performed best when those definitions were abstractly phrased. It was hypothesized that RGs deficit lay in the visual domain of the semantic system. This was supported by a number of tasks showing that his knowledge about the appearance of objects and animals was disproportionately impaired. Naming was also influenced by the semantic characteristics of items, in that objects which are largely defined by function were named well, whereas items defined largely by their appearance were named poorly. RGs performance is interpreted against a distributed model of semantic processing.

Noun–verb dissociations: a multi-faceted phenomenon

Abstract If we are looking for dissociations in language processing, nouns and verbs are strong candidates. In normal development as well as in developmental and acquired impairments, differences are typically found, usually, though not exclusively, in favour of nouns. In this paper, we re-visit these differences. We argue that the syntactic distinction between nouns and verbs goes hand in hand with phonological and semantic differences. Phonologically, verbs in English tend to have less typical stress patterns than nouns; to be of shorter duration in sentences; and to have fewer syllables. Semantically, a number of factors load differently for verbs and nouns: their conceptual range (with ‘things’ always mapping onto nouns and ‘relations’ typically mapping onto verbs); their semantic complexity in terms of the occurrence and number of entities they connect (their ‘argument structure’); and the closeness of the mapping between their meanings and non-linguistic concepts (something similar but not identical to the concrete/abstract distinction). We review the reported dissociations showing that all these factors play a role. Normally developing children commonly produce nouns before verbs but this varies depending on semantic, syntactic and phonological characteristics of these categories. Language-impaired children and adults with aphasia commonly show greater limitations in their use of verbs than nouns but patterns of difficulty point to phonological and semantic influences. We conclude that the patterns reported cannot be reduced to any one level of language processing.

Early phonological and sociocognitive skills as predictors of later language and social communication outcomes.

BACKGROUND Previous studies of outcome for children with early language delay have focused on measures of early language as predictors of language outcome. This study investigates whether very early processing skills (VEPS) known to underpin language development will be better predictors of specific language and social communication outcomes than measures of language itself. METHOD Participants were 163 children referred to clinical services with concerns about language at 2;6-3;6 years and followed up at 4-5 years. Novel assessments of phonological and sociocognitive processing were administered at Time 1 (T1), together with a standardised test of receptive and expressive language, and parental report of expressive vocabulary. The language test was re-administered at Time 2 (T2), together with assessments of morphosyntax and parental reports of social communication. RESULTS Intercorrelations at and between T1 and T2 were high, and dissociations were rare. Ordinal regressions were run, entering predictors singly and simultaneously. With the exception of the phonological task, every early measure on its own was significantly predictive of most outcomes, and receptive language was the strongest all-round predictor. Results of simultaneous entry, controlling for the effect of other predictors, showed that early language was the strongest predictor of general language outcome, but early phonology was the strongest predictor of a measure of morphosyntax, and early sociocognition the strongest predictor of social communication. CONCLUSIONS Language measures which draw on a wide range of skills were the strongest overall predictors of general language outcomes. However, our VEPS measures were stronger predictors of specific outcomes. The clinical and theoretical implications of these findings are discussed.

Sentence processing therapy: Working at the level of the event

Abstract This paper describes the assessment and treatment of a dysphasic subject with severe impairments in sentence production. Investigations revealed poor verb production and reduced access to the verb argument information. Further investigations suggested additional problems at the level of event processing. Errors were elicited on a verb/picture matching task and on a video assessment which required the identification of participant roles from interactive events. Therapy aimed to improve event processing. The subject was asked to identify the agent and theme in video events by selecting relevant photographs. Photo selection was also used to focus on the nature of the verb. Evaluation showed that therapy improved the subjects ability to produce two argument descriptions of action pictures. The structural skills generalized to representations of events which had not been targeted in therapy. The gains in speech production were reflected in a second evaluation procedure in which naive and familiar obs...

Phonological naming therapy in jargon aphasia: Positive but paradoxical effects

This article is a single-case investigation of phonological naming therapy. The individual involved had fluent jargon speech, with neologisms, verbal paraphasias, and paragrammatisms. The jargon was underpinned by a severe anomia. Content words were rarely accessed either in spontaneous speech or naming. Single word investigations highlighted some preserved skills. Auditory comprehension, at least for concrete words, was relatively intact and although nonwords could not be repeated, words could, and at a level which was far superior to naming. The patient also had some ability to respond to phonological cues. These results suggested that phonological representations were preserved and that there were some intact semantic abilities. It seemed that the naming disorder was primarily due to an inability to access phonology from semantics. Therapy took a phonological approach. The patient was encouraged to reflect upon the syllabic structure and first phoneme of pictured targets. Subsequently, she was required to use this partial phonological knowledge as a self-cue. It was hypothesized that this therapy might equip the subject with a self-cuing naming strategy. Posttherapy investigations of naming demonstrated dramatic improvements, which generalized to untreated items. However, there was little evidence that these were due to a self cuing strategy. Performance on phonological judgment and discrimination assessments, which required conscious phonological reflection, was unchanged, and there were no signs that the patient was self-cuing during naming. Reasons for these paradoxical results are discussed.

Written communication in undifferentiated jargon aphasia: a therapy study

A subject, R.M.M., with a 2-year history of jargon aphasia is described. At the beginning of this study she had minimal meaningful spoken output and showed little awareness of her speech despite having relatively well-preserved auditory comprehension. Her spoken output had proved resistant to earlier periods of therapy. In contrast, R.M.M.s written output showed some ability to access orthographic information and monitoring of this modality was shown by an acute awareness of her errors. A 3-stage therapy programme is described. This was designed to improve R.M.M.s writing of single words and to encourage use of writing as an alternative means of communication. The initial stage of therapy aimed to increase R.M.M.s access to written word forms by use of picture stimuli. She showed significant improvement in writing treated items in response to pictures both immediately after therapy and at re-assessment 6 weeks later. Despite the acquisition of these skills, R.M.M. failed to use them in communicative contexts. A second stage of therapy replicated the results of the first and sought to facilitate R.M.M.s functional use of her written vocabulary by asking her to write words to spoken questions. She again showed improved written naming of the treated items and could now produce written names appropriately in a questionnaire-type assessment. Generalization of this ability extended to items that had not been trained in this way. Functional use of writing in everyday communication remained absent, however. The final stage of therapy made explicit the potential links between items which R.M.M. could now write and functional messages which they might convey. She again showed significant changes in the acquisition of new vocabulary and, encouragingly, progress was also seen in her use of the strategy in functional communication. R.M.M.s speech is almost entirely incomprehensible. It has remained unchanged for 2 years and has not responded to therapy. Relatively well-preserved auditory comprehension and good monitoring of written output allowed therapy to effectively target a small written vocabulary. Despite significant progress in the acquisition of new items, transfer of this skill to functional communication was initially absent. Further therapy which specifically targeted the impairment causing this failure was needed before functional use was seen. The potential for treating written output in cases of jargon aphasia which have been resistant to therapy for spoken language is discussed.

The relation between prosodic structure, syllabification and segmental realization: evidence from a child with fricative stopping

This study is concerned with the interaction between prosodic structure, phonotactic structure and syllabification in the realization of segmental targets. It is based on a detailed investigation into the realization of intervocalic fricative targets by a child who stopped fricatives word-initially, but produced them correctly word-finally. Intervocalic fricatives in different prosodic and phonotactic domains were elicited using controlled repetition tasks, backed up by speech samples. It was found that intervocalic fricatives were realized correctly provided they occurred between strong and weak syllables within a word, in a phonotactic sequence which is permissible word-finally, e.g./f/ in buffalo, selfish. Intervocalic fricatives were generally stopped in other prosodic domains, e.g./f/ in beautiful, and in other phonotactic domains, e.g./f/ in comfort. These findings have implications for the processes involved in the output of lexical phonology.

From conceptual intention to utterance: a study of impaired language output in a child with developmental dysphasia.

This is a psycholinguistic case study of a child whose linguistic output is often unintelligible or ungrammatical, and who has been diagnosed as developmental dysphasic. It explores the conceptual intentions expressed in the child’s spontaneous utterances, and her linguistic mapping of these intentions. Analysis of the scope and limits of her output reveal: