Brown Jargonaphasia

1. Auflage 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4832-1676-8
Verlag: Elsevier Science & Techn.
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 348 Seiten

Jargonaphasia covers the different forms of posterior aphasia and the relations of these pathological states to focal brain lesions. The book presents the behavior of eight patients with full-blown jargonaphasia. The text then describes the components and analysis of the neologism, the conditions under which it can appear, and its possible functions; the localization of lesions in jargonaphasia and the utilization of IS and CT localization; and the gestures and lexical processes in jargonaphasia. The aphasic jargon and the speech acts of naming and judging; the behavioral aspects of jargonaphasia; and the associative processes in semantic jargon and in schizophrenic language are also considered. The book further tackles case reports of semantic jargon; a case with phonemic jargon; and the vowel timing and linguistic organization of articulatory sequences in jargonaphasia. The text also looks into the therapy with the jargonaphasic. Psychiatrists, neuropsychologists, speech therapists, psychologists, and linguistics will find the book invaluable.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Brown, Jason W.

Leseproben

Chapter 2 Jargons1
ANDRÉ ROCH LECOURS, ELLEN OSBORN, LISA TRAVIS, FRANÇOISE ROUILLON and GINETTE LAVALL´E-HUYNH Publisher Summary
This chapter focuses on the deviations observed in the oral language of jargonaphasic subjects. It discusses the typology of jargons with a focus on linguistic typology. The linguistic typology deals with the behavior of eight patients with full-blown jargonaphasia. All were right-handed adults without previous speech or language disorders. In each case, the aphasia directly resulted from an acquired focal brain lesion. The chapter also discusses the cases of three patients with forms of jargonaphasia that are well defined, relatively frequent, and generally recognized as clinical entities; these three cases are considered as prototypes. The chapter also discusses five other cases, each of which displays one or more unusual features, including some that are usually thought of as indicative of psychiatric rather than neurological disorder. It presents a comparison of each of these five cases with the prototypes underlining both similarities and dissimilarities. Nowadays, when one labels a patient’s language behavior as JARGONAPHASIA, one usually means that this patient is an adult with an acquired brain lesion, that his speech is produced without arthric distortions, that it is fluent, and—hence the label—that it comprises enough DEVIATIONS for the listener to be unable to make conventional sense out of it. This can occur, at one time or another, in the course of the clinical evolution of several forms of aphasia. In most cases, it occurs as a manifestation—although not a necessary one—of either conduction aphasia, Wernicke’s aphasia proper, or transcortical sensory aphasia (Lecours & Rouillon, 1976). In the present context, the term DEVIATION designates any segment of spoken or written language that does not entirely correspond to target, and we are concerned primarily with the deviations observed in the oral language of jargonaphasic subjects. The term PHONEMIC DEVIATIONS regroups phonemic approaches, phonemic paraphasias, phonemic télescopages, and formal verbal paraphasias (most of which are paradigmatic verbal substitutions between formally similar dictionary words). The term MORPHEMIC DEVIATIONS designates deviant segments that are made up of at least two bona fide morphemes and uttered as if they were single words or locutions although they do not occur in the dictionary. The term NEOLOGISMS designates deviant segments that are uttered as if they were single words or locutions although they do not occur in the dictionary, and that can neither be positively identified as phonemic paraphasias, because the listener cannot recognize target words, if any, nor as morphemic deviations, because they are not made of bona fide morphemes. The term VERBAL DEVIATIONS regroups semantic verbal paraphasias (most of which are paradigmatic verbal substitutions between conceptually related words), predilection words (words which occur repeatedly as substitutes for any word of the same lexical category), filler words, syntagmic paraphasias (most of which are paradigmatic substitutions between segments comprising several words), and inadequate circumlocutions. The term PARAGRAMMATIC DEVIATION, finally, is used whenever a deviation, usually a verbal one, causes the clause, phrase, or sentence in which it occurs to transgress one rule or another of normative grammar. All of the above terms have been precisely defined elsewhere (Lecours & Lhermitte, 1979; Lecours & Rouillon, 1976; Lecours & Vanier-Clément, 1976), and all will be exemplified extensively in quotations given in this chapter. These quotations are excerpted from interviews with French-speaking jargonaphasic subjects; conventions followed in transcriptions of the originals and in English translations are summarized in Table 2.1. TABLE 2.1 Conventions for the Transcription of Jargonaphasic Samples and Their English Translations aTranscribed as in the French original when target word is not obvious. This chapter aims at further precision in the typology of JARGONS, with special interest in linguistic typology. It deals with the behavior of eight patients with full-blown jargonaphasia. All were right-handed adults without previous speech or language disorders. In each case, the aphasia directly resulted from an acquired focal brain lesion. Our report bears on the phases of their disease when linguistic anomalies were at their zenith (this is what we mean by “full-blown”). We will first discuss the cases of three patients with forms of jargonaphasia that are well defined, relatively frequent, and generally recognized as clinical entities; these three cases will be considered as prototypes. We will then turn to five other cases, each of which displays one or more unusual features, including some that are usually thought of as indicative of psychiatric rather than neurological disorder. For each of these five cases, a comparison will be made with the prototypes, underlining both similarities and dissimilarities. CASE 1
The first case is that of Mr. K., an Alsatian engineer who enjoyed good health until the winter of 1970 when, at the age of 76, his language behavior suddenly became grossly abnormal. This occurred to such an extent that his next of kin thought he had just been struck by sudden madness and decided, somewhat hastily, to have him interned in a lunatic asylum. Mr. K. understood the meaning of this decision and resented it; indeed, he never forgot nor forgave although he later agreed that his verbal protests could hardly have helped. After a week or so at the asylum, he had the good fortune of being visited by a knowledgeable intern. As a consequence, he was transferred to the aphasia unit of la Salpêtrière where clinical and paraclinical manifestations of a left posterior sylvian softening were observed. The patient produced fluent jargon without arthric distortions; word-finding difficulties were obvious in both spontaneous speech and naming; attempts at repetition and, to a lesser degree, at reading aloud, led to production of numerous phonemic paraphasias; attempts at writing, either spontaneously or on dictation, led to production of numerous literal paragraphias; comprehension of oral and written language was nearly normal. Mr. K.’s linguistic behavior was therefore labeled as CONDUCTION APHASIA The following is excerpted from the recording of a conversation with Mr. K. about 3 weeks after his stroke: RACONTEZ-MOI VOTRE VIE AU COURS DE LA GRANDE GUERRE
Given the conventions defined in Table 2.1 the following is the best English translation we can provide: TELL ME ABOUT YOUR LIFE DURING THE FIRST WORLD WAR
As is obvious from this quotation, Mr. K.’s conversational behavior was indeed very characteristic of the jargon sometimes observed during the earlier phases of severe conduction aphasia. Besides a major perturbation in the evocation of lexical words, evidenced by hesitations, repetitions of articles and prepositions, and aborted sentences, it comprised an important and nearly exclusive production of phonemic deviations—that is, of phonemic approaches (4,5,7,9,10,12,13,18,19,22,26), of phonemic paraphasias (2,5,8,10,12,13,15,16,17,19)2, of phonemic télescopages [/ in (25)], and of formal verbal paraphasias (1,14,20,21,24).3 The difficulty in word finding and the production of phonemic deviations typically affected the same targets, and easy replacement of an involved word by a normally uttered synonym (3), a phenomenon that is not uncommon in such cases, was sometimes observed. The speaker’s frequent attempts at correction, as well as other comments (6), showed how conscious he was of the anomalous nature of his discouse; this is the rule in such cases (absence of anosognosia). It should be noted that, from an exclusively descriptive point of view, the jargon of severe conduction aphasia occasionally comprises stretches that are somewhat reminiscent of the FORMAL GLOSSOMANIA (Lecours & Vanier-Clément, 1976) occurring, in its full-blown form, in the discourse of certain schizophasic subjects. In this respect, Mr. K.’s {quatorze–| kalis|–|galis|–//} (20,21,23) and {|ter|–/pler/–place} (24,25) are good examples. Notes
1. Conduction aphasia, including eventually the typical jargon, is sometimes observed immediately at the onset of disease, presumably as the result of supramarginal lesions, and sometimes it gradually emerges from the more complex clinical picture of Wernicke’s aphasia proper. The latter perhaps occurred in the case of Mr. K. 2. A computer programmed to simulate the production of phonemic paraphasias will also produce, without any instructions to do so, a certain proportion of outputs that are assimilable to formal verbal paraphasias (Lecours, Deloche, & Lhermitte 1973). One can therefore suggest that in conduction aphasia the production of...