Phonological length, phonetic duration and aphasia

• Published in: Clinical linguistics & phonetics 1997, Vol.11 (5), p.411-422
• Main Authors: Gilbers, Dicky, van der Linde, Klarien, Bastiaanse, Roelien
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Aphasia; length features; Linguistics; Pathology of language; phonemic paraphasias; vowel length
• ISSN: 0269-9206; 1464-5076
• DOI: 10.1080/02699209708985203

This study discusses an error type that is expected to occur in aphasics suffering from a phonological disorder, i.e. Wernicke's and conduction aphasics, but not in aphasics suffering from a phonetic disorder, i.e. Broca's aphasics. The critical notion is 'phonological length'. It will be argued that it is impossible to define phonological length in articulatory-phonetic terms. Rather it should be defined in structural, that is, purely phonological terms. This suggests that the difference between the pairs /a,i,e,o,u/, the so-called long vowels, and /a,i,s,o,u/, the so-called short vowels, is phonologically based and not phonetically based. It is thus hypothesized that errors concerning phonological length may occur in patients with a phonological disorder, but are not expected in patients with an articulatory problem. To test this hypothesis an error analysis was made of the phonemic paraphasias produced by seven Broca's, four conduction and two Wernicke's aphasics. The results support the hypothesis: conduction and Wernicke's aphasics produce significantly more errors concerning vowel length than do Broca's aphasics.