Chapter 8: language and speech

Question 1

Structuralism

Answer 1

A stream in the 20’s where they made the distinction between language and speech. The language contains the concept of the words (signife) and the sounds that form the words (significant). Together these form signe. Speech is the physiological process by which concepts are articulated by means of certain sound units through the vocal tract.

Question 2

Chomsky

Answer 2

Raised the theory of universal grammar, which is innate in every person and for every language in the world. However, this was rejected since other languages can have different word order in their sentences and kids learn to form more complicated senteces inthe older they get.

Question 3

Levet’s psycholoinguistic blueprint

Answer 3

The mental lexican is the core of linguistic functioning and is part of the semantic memory. It is a sort of menta library where we store everything we know about words or short sentences.

Question 4

Different layer of linguistic levels (Levet)

Answer 4

• Semantic: meaning, a whole structure of things that remind us of other things.
• Phonology: abstract sound units.
• Morphology: the smallest units in a word that still bear meaning (like +s).
• Syntax: grammatical structure.
• Pragmatics: relationship between language expressions in specific situations and meaning.

Question 5

Speaking happens in 3 stages:

Answer 5

1. Conceptualizer: the preverbal message is prepared based on concepts and world knowledge.
2. Formulator: grammatical and phonological information from the mental lexicon are inserted so internal speech in formed.
3. Articulator: the physiological process of speaking, moving muscles.

Left hemisphere: conceptualization, grammar and phonological encoding.
Right hemisphere: prosody and pragmatics.

Question 6

Broca’s Aphasia

Answer 6

Damage in the left inferior frontal gyrus. Non-fluent, agrammatical language production. They do know what they want to say and it makes sense, but the sentences are just very telegram style.

Question 7

Wernicke’s aphasia

Answer 7

Damage in the posteror part of the left temporal lobe. Spontaneous speech of people is fluent, however, what they say does not make sense. Also the repeating, reading and writing of words out loud is hardly possible.

Question 8

Conduction aphasia

Answer 8

Moderately fluent language production with many phonological paraphasias and neologisms. They do have good language comprehension and try to correct their own mistakes.

Question 9

Paraphasias

Answer 9

Paraphasias are the wrong sounds made when trying to say a word (saying lar insead of car).

Question 10

Neologisms

Answer 10

Neologisms are the new words we can make from existing words.

Question 11

Transcortical aphasia

Answer 11

Is characterized by impaired auditory comprehension with intact repetition and fluent speech. In the severe form people can only repeat what has just been said (echolalia).

Question 12

Anomic aphasia

Answer 12

Language production is fluent with word-finding difficulties. The spontaneous speech is characterized by hesitations, pauses and descriptions.

Question 13

Global aphasia

Answer 13

Both language production and comprehension is affected. The language production is limited to a few single words, stereotypical expressions and language automatisms like ‘don’t know’.

Question 14

Dysarthria:

Answer 14

Motor loss in the mouth, tongue or facial muscles leading to unclear articulation.

Question 15

Speech apraxia

Answer 15

The articulation organs are intact, but the control and programming are impaired.

Question 16

Seperating dysarthria form speech apraxia

Answer 16

Separating dysarthria from speech apraxia happens by having patients say pa-pa-pa and pa-ta-ka. The person with dysarthria will do bad at both sentences, while the person with speech apraxia will do worse at the pa-ta-ka sentence, since it involves rapid control. Moving the mouth to find the correct position for the pronunciation is also something someone with speech apraxia would do.

Question 17

Forms of dyslexia and agraphia

Answer 17

• Dyslexia: when reading is impaired.
• Agraphia: when writing is impaired.
• Phonological dyslexia/ agraphia: when non-existent words cannot be read.
• Deep dyslexia / deep agraphia: when semantic errors are made when reading aloud or writing.
• Neglect dyslexia: when there is an impairment in the identification of graphemes at the beginning of each word.

Question 18

Dynamic aphasia

Answer 18

Difficulty with speech initiation and fluency.

Question 19

Mild aphasia

Answer 19

Difficult/ less smooth participation in group conversation, weak topic maintenance after an interruption, difficulty to express nuances and difficulty reading subtitles.

Question 20

Left and right handed people

Answer 20

Right handed people mostly have their speech in their left hemisphere, in left handed people the speech areas are more diffused throughout the brain.

Question 21

Proprioception

Answer 21

Where your body is in the space.

Question 22

Ventral system (what)

Answer 22

• For recognition/identification
• High spatial frequencies, details
• Long term stored memory representations
• Relatively slow speed
• High consciousness
• Allocentric (on one person or things) or object-centered

Question 23

Dorsal system (where)

Answer 23

• For visually guided behaviour
• High temporal frequencies, motion
• Only very short term memory storage
• Speed is relatively fast
• Low consciousness
• Egocentric of viewer-centered

Question 24

Glaucoma

Answer 24

A oss of visual field except for a round middle where the patient can see through.

Question 25

Apperceptive agnosia

Answer 25

Difficulty integrating incoming information into an image.

Question 26

Associative agnosia

Answer 26

Associating that image with memories/knowledge.

Question 27

Asomatognosia

Answer 27

The feeling that part of one’s body is missing, fading or is disapeared.

Question 28

Charles Bonnet Syndrome

Answer 28

Patients are aware of the hallicunations, they have impaired transmission within the visual system.

Question 29

Anton’s syndrom

Answer 29

Patients can be unaware of what are hallucinations. They have impaired bilateral V1 area’s.

Question 30

Palinopsia

Answer 30

The persistent recurrence of visual image.