TELEGRAPHESE AND AGRAMMATISM - A CROSS-LINGUISTIC STUDY

In this study, grammatical aspects of telegraphese (written telegram s tyle) in normal adults are compared to agrammatic narratives in Broca' s aphasia. The study is conducted in four languages: Dutch, German, Sw edish, and Finnish. The background for this study is the claim, both f rom theoreticians and practitioners, that agrammatism can be equated w ith telegram style in normals. In summary, the comparisons of utteranc e length, grammaticality, omissions and substitutions of closed class items, and structures show that despite some superficial parallels the two registers of telegraphese and agrammatism are qualitatively diffe rent.