SYLLABIC CONSTRAINTS IN THE PHONOLOGICAL ERRORS OF AN APHASIC PATIENT

The Sonority Dispersion Principle (Clements, 1990) states that the sha rper the rise in sonority between the beginning of the syllable and th e nucleus, the better the syllable. So far evidence in favour of this principle has been derived mainly from the distributional properties o f syllable types and, to a lesser extent, from language acquisition. T he case of DB, presented in this study, provides strong evidence that the Sonority Dispersion Principle also applies to an explanation of ap hasic errors and revives Jakobson's idea that the same principles of c omplexity can explain the distribution of syllables, language acquisit ion, and language loss (Jakobson, 1941, 1968). Although some evidence that sonority constraints aphasic errors has been presented before, th is is the first study reporting systematic effects of sonority-based c omplexity in aphasia. (C) 1998 Academic Press.