DISCONNECTED PHONOLOGY - A LINGUISTIC ANALYSIS OF PHONEMIC JARGON APHASIA

This paper reports on indications of the nature of the neurolinguistic connection between phonological and lexical components of language, b ased on a case of phonemic jargon aphasia. Following bihemispheric emb olic infarcts, the subject presented with severe fluent aphasia, chara cterized by fluent strings of phonemes, with virtually no intelligible utterances. Despite nearly total jargonized output, the fundamental p honological processes of speech were largely intact. Specifically she demonstrated: (1) English phonotactics and English stress-timed rhythm ic principles, (2) aspirated stops word-initially and glottalized stop s word-finally, (3) utterance-final declination of pitch, and (4) stre ssed syllable vowel lengthening. Additionally, regional-specific (Sout hern American English) phonological processes, including monophthongiz ation, in-gliding, and front vowel backing, were also preserved. Overa ll, the investigation reveals an example of an intact phonological rul e system operating on a grossly disturbed input (lexical representatio n). (C) 1996 Academic Press, Inc.