Language Disorders Presentation 2: 2011

Presenter Ahmed Mohammed S. Alduais MA student King Saud University Department of English Language and Literature Applied Linguistics Section Contact: ibnalduais@gmail.com

Guide Mahmoud I. Saleh Professor of Applied Linguistics Department of English and Literature College of Arts KSU (King Saud University)

Language: some defintions Chomsky, 2002: “a natural object, a component of the human mind, physically represented in the brain and part of the biological endowment of the species” Holm 2004: “a kind of social behavior, one of the many ways in which individuals interact with those around them” Connectionists (Interactionists) language is a combination of noisy sounds which are ordered to form language

What is a disorder? a mental or physical illness which prevents part of your body from working properly A disturbance that causes the disordered part thing and other parts may be to work improperly A disruption in any of the human body parts or organs

What is a speech or/and language disorder? any occurring event, disease or whatsoever which leads to disruption of language or its mechanisms

Speech disorders when talking about problems which happen to speech mechanism or organs so it would refer to speech disorders when a person is not able to speak fluently and clearly, has problems with vocal cords, voice production system, hearing also can be included so these things would refer to speech disorders

Examples for speech disorders stuttering, (too much time to utter a word, a phrase, a sentence, etc.),  disruptions in the production of speech sounds apraxia, (motor errors in speech and articulation), (The brain has problems planning to move the body parts (e.g., lips, jaw, tongue) needed for speech)[ASHA website] dysarthria, (articulation problems) and voice (problems in the voice, vocal cords may be, etc.)

Language disorders when talking about language form, content, functions and use, so it would refer to language disorders when a person has problem receiving ideas, thoughts, words, etc (receptive language skills), or expressing one’s ideas, thoughts, in words, sentences and utterances written or spoken (expressive language skills) such things would refer to language disorders

Other terms refer to language disorders language disability; language inability; language defects; language deficits; language loss; language dissolution; language impairments; language deviance; language delays

Aphasia What is aphasia: a generic name, a disease which is actually related to the loss of language either totally or partially language in this kind of disease can be affected in many ways a patient can lose either his/her grammar, syntax, vocabulary, phonology or semantics It indicates that a particular area in the brain occupies a particular component aphasia or language loss mainly refers to people who suffer(s) from accidents and they might lose their abilities to speak and understand language

Aphasia vs. dysphasia aphasia in general is a confusing term: some have used to refer to complete loss of language, dysphasia for partial loss of language acquired aphasia and development dysphasia; the former refers to any language dysfunction be it partial or complete resulting from brain insult whatever its cause(s), and the latter refers to any language dissolution as a result of language delay, developmental reasons, inherited disorders, or whatsoever where in not brain insult be it a child and adult or an aging person

Classification of language disorders: arguments classification of language disorders (aphasia) is a very controversial issue; some would classify them according to the insulted area in the brain and those only who believe in the idea that language components can be localized in the brain; some others would classify them linguistically (mostly linguists, neurolinguists, psycholinguists, and clinical linguists in addition to those who approach language disorders from a linguistic point of view. The following two figures can show two of the above mentioned models:

Medical classification of aphasia (language disorders) aphasia is the technical term referring to a language disorder. The reader should take into consideration here that other classifications of aphasia are possible, other types can be added, other areas of the brain responsible for a certain language function are also possible as all these issue are abstract and whatever has been said it remains questionable and indefinite. The following figure is model for the medical classification of aphasia based on (Ahlsen, 2006, Obler and Gjerlow, 1999 and Greene & Bone, 2007).

Medical classification of aphasia (language disorders) Type of aphasia (acquired) Brain area Language ability affected Global aphasia Broca’s aphasia Wernicke’s aphasia Transcortical sensory Transcortical motor Anomic aphasia Alexia with agraphia (dyslexia) Alexia without agraphia Pure word deafness Atypical aphasia Conduction aphasia Other types Agraphia Dyslexia Dementia Dysphasia Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas Broca’s area Wernicke’s area Posterior parietal lobe Front of Rolandic fissure Usually angular gyrus (not certain) Areas around parietal and temporal lobes Areas around Broca’s area and motor area Unknown Non-cortical sector of language networks, gray matter, white matter, etc. Corpus callosum Articulation and comprehension Articulation Comprehension Partial comprehension Partial articulation Naming things Writing and reading Reading Auditory comprehension and repetition A mixture of any of the above Repetition of words and sentences

Linguistic classification of language disorders (aphasia) It should be noted here that several classifications of aphasia from a linguistic perspective is not common, but the researcher has made an attempt and made this one depending on different sources and readings. The main reason behind this is that such linguistic skills and components, forming the human language faculty, are intricately integrated which makes pure syntactic or pragmatic aphasia as rare phenomena. Additionally, the role of the right hemisphere should not be ignored also; many researches including neuro-imaging findings have proved the participation of the right hemisphere in at least abstract meanings of words, ambiguous sentences, semantic issues, and more importantly and commonly pragmatic issues, so such information below must not be taken as 100% definite.

Linguistic classification of language disorders (aphasia) Type of aphasia/dysphasia Brain area Language ability affected Phonetic aphasia phonological aphasia lexical aphasia morphological aphasia syntactic aphasia semantic aphasia pragmatic aphasia Broca’s area, physical problems (lip, throat, etc.), medial zone in left temporal lobe Areas could be one or two of the mentioned above depending on (meaning, articulation, etc.) Similar to lexical aphasia Similar to the above two Posterior tertiary zone Right hemisphere Phonetics and phonology Vocabulary Morphological system Syntactic Structures Linguistic meaning within semantics Meaning in context and interaction

Common symptoms of language disorders and expected damaged brain areas Difficulties in words Anywhere within language area around the Sylvian fissure Incorrect production and difficulty of generating sentences Anterior lesions indicating Broca’s area Weak comprehension and empty speech damage to posterior regions around Wernicke’s area Inability to repeat Damage to either of the two areas of language but mostly from damage to the arcuate fasciculus between them

more about aphasia aphasia is referred to a deficit, impairment or loss of language; it varies from sever to mild there are so many types of aphasia; it is caused by lesions or damage(s) to language areas in the brain; any damage sustained in the language area (s), it will in one way or another result to aphasia traumas in their two types: (benign and malignant), are one of the main reasons that cause for aphasia; both types of trauma can cause for language impairment

Conclusions infant acquires his/her first language which develops along with his biological development language development can be delayed, disturbed or interrupted and the result is incomplete acquisition of language which results again to poor communication and linguistic skills in this or that particular infant, child, adult or whoever undergone this experience

Conclusions 3. we as humans ma undergone an unhappy accident, a random or even aimed bullet shot, stroke, trauma, brain insult, or anything that caused to brain injury which will in turn result to either partial dissolution or even full dissolution of language 4. aphasia can be introduced and classified under three levels: child aphasia which is called usually dysphasia, adult aphasia, and aging aphasia which is again referred to as dementia rather than aging aphasia

Conclusions 5. has been shown that both aphasia and dysphasia can be classified into two types: acquired and developmental; the former indicates any type of language dissolution be it partial or full as a result of any type of brain injury, the latter represents any type of language dissolution without brain injury 6. other symptoms in the brain such as cells shortage, inherited disease, or natural neurological disorders in some neurons of the brain can also go under the second type that is developmental

Selected References Ahlsen, E. (2006). Introduction to Neurolinguistics. Amsterdam, Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company [electronic version] . Cordelia Fine. (2008). The Britannica Guide to the Brain: A guided Tour of the Brain- Mind, Memory, and Intelligence. Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc. [electronic version] . Ingram, J. C. (2007). Neurolinguistics: An Introduction to Spoken Language Processing and Its Disorders. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press [electronic version] .

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