PRINCIPLED SYLLABIC DISSOLUTION IN A PRIMARY PROGRESSIVE APHASIA CASE

In this longitudinal study, the syllabic paraphasias (here defined as insertions or deletions of a phoneme) produced by a Primary Progressiv e Aphasia case to syllabic adaptations of loanwords were compared. It is shown that paraphasias are phonologically principled and thus highl y predictable. More specifically, it it shown that the repair strategi es applied by the patient are very similar to those applied by normal speakers when they adapt borrowings. The rate of segment preservation as opposed to segment deletion is very high in borrowings and in the s yllabic errors produced by the patient. However, the type of repair st rategy applied by the patient changes with the progression of the phon ological deficit, segment deletions being more frequent than segment i nsertions in the late stages of the illness. The evolution of the syll abic error pattern is accounted for by the effect of two principles: t he Preservation and the Threshold Principles. The combined effects of these two principles entail that segment preservation has the edge ove r segment deletion except when the preservation of a segment requires too many phonological operations. It is suggested in this study that t he Preservation Principle remains effective even in the late stages bu t its effect is reduced with the progression of the deficit because th e patient's tolerance threshold to complex (multi-step) repair is lowe red.