PHONOLOGICAL LENGTH, PHONETIC DURATION AND APHASIA

This study discusses an error type that is expected to occur in aphasi cs suffering from a phonological disorder, i.e. Wernicke's and conduct ion aphasics, but not in aphasics suffering from a phonetic disorder, i.e. Broca's aphasics. The critical notion is 'phonological length'. I t will be argued that it is impossible to define phonological length i n articulatory-phonetic terms. Rather it should be defined in structur al, that is, purely phonological terms. This suggests that the differe nce between the pairs /a,i,e,o,u/, the so-called long vowels, and /a,I ,E,c,u/, the so-called short vowels, is phonologically based and not p honetically based. It is thus hypothesized that errors concerning phon ological length may occur in patients with a phonological disorder, bu t are not expected in patients with an articulatory problem. To test t his hypothesis an error analysis was made of the phonemic paraphasias produced by seven Broca's, four conduction and two Wernicke's aphasics . The results support the hypothesis: conduction and Wernicke's aphasi cs produce significantly more errors concerning vowel length than do B roca's aphasics.