WHEN RACQUETS ARE BASKETS BUT BASKETS ARE BISCUITS, WHERE DO THE WORDS COME FROM - A SINGLE-CASE STUDY OF FORMAL PARAPHASIC ERRORS IN APHASIA

This paper provides evidence for the existence of real-word errors pho nologically related to targets (formal paraphasias) in the naming atte mpts of a person with aphasia, MF. Zn particular, this is the first de monstration that such errors are genuine lexical errors and not jargon homophones (phonological errors that happen to be words by chance; Bu tterworth, 1979). This finding was replicated on a second naming attem pt. MF's naming accuracy was influenced by length and by imageability/ concreteness. There was no effect of frequency or age of acquisition. In addition to formal errors, he made semantic errors and nonword erro rs that were phonologically related to the target. The apparently mixe d (semantic and formal) errors are argued not to be truly mixed on the grounds that they do not share phonology with the targets at greater than chance rates. A detailed analysis of MF's errors is followed by d iscussion of the findings in relation to a variety of models of speech production including those with one (Morton, 1970) and two (Butterwor th, 1989, 1992) stages of lexical access and an interactive activation model (Dell, 1989). Whereas all of the models can account for some as pects of his naming, no model, as it stands, can give a complete accou nt of MF's performance.