Clinical Linguistics: Theory and Applications in Speech Pathology and Therapy (review)

This volume consists of seventeen papers arranged into five sections.

Section 1 discusses phonology in clinical applications. Yishai Tobin (3–22) shows how the phonology-as-human-behavior theory can systematically explain the connection between phylogeny, ontogeny, and pathologies of phonological development. Dirk-Bart den Ouden (23–45) contrasts segmental markedness with syllable markedness in aphasia from an optimality-theoretic perspective. A difference between the prephonetic and the phonetic level of processing is argued to explain the different patterns of coda-cluster reductions by fluent and nonfluent aphasics.

Section 2 investigates words in deafness and stuttering. Roberto Ajello, Giovanna Marotta, Laura Mazzoni, and Florida Nicolai (49–74) observe that Italian adults with profound deafness make the same morphosyntactic errors as L2 Italian learners at the initial stages of their interlanguages. Peter Howell and James Au-Yeung (75–94) and Peter Howell (95–115) introduce the applications of the EXPLAN theory of fluency control in stuttering diagnosis and intervention, respectively. They suggest that diagnosis should involve ‘specifying and measuring the types of fluency failures that occur in late adolescence to see if they have changed in a way commensurate with adult stuttering’ (75), and that intervention can rely on operant procedures.

Section 3 covers morphology and syntax in child language disorders. Roelien Bastiaanse, Gerard Bol, Sofie van Mol, and Shalom Zuckerman (119–30) compare the production of finite verbs in Dutch by normally developing children, children with specific language impairment (SLI), and adults with agrammatic aphasia. They find that SLI impairment is syntactic in nature and that these populations compensate in different ways. Stavroula Stavrakaki (131–53) examines productions of relative clauses and wh-questions by Greek children with SLI and agrees that they have syntactic difficulties. Susan Suzman (154–74) investigates morphological impairment in Zulu and proposes differential access to morphology ‘depending in part on the obligatory or optional status of morphemes’ in the language (156). Yumiko Tanaka Welty, Jun Watanabe, and Lise Menn (175–93) argue that the morphological problems of Japanese children with SLI are a result of cognitive overload.

Section 4 discusses issues on grammar and cognition. Leah R. Paltiel-Gedalyovich (197–211) argues that linguistic and pragmatic factors interact to affect performance on some items aimed to test linguistic knowledge in developmental language tests. Dušana Rybárová (214–27) seeks to bridge the gap between linguistic and nonlinguistic accounts of SLI by replacing ‘strong modularity’ with ‘weak modularity’. Vesna Stojanovik, Mick Perkins, and Sara Howard (229–45) examine the language/cognition interface and find that SLI patients perform significantly better on cognitive tasks than on language, whereas the reverse is true for people with Williams syndrome.

Section 5 covers grammatical structure in aphasia. Susan Edwards (249–66) shows that not all grammatical errors by fluent aphasics result from lexical impairment, but rather more commonly from grammatical processing deficits. Anna Gavarró (267–78) studies previously collected language samples by individuals with aphasia from a variety of languages and shows how linguistic theory and the study of agrammatism can inform each other. Judith Rispens, Roelien Bastiaanse, and Susan Edwards (279–98) introduce and evaluate the content of the verb and sentence test and show its applications to aphasia. Esther Ruigendijk (299–314) considers case assignment as an explanation for determiner omission in German agrammatic speech, that is, ‘when no case assigning verb is realized, no determiners can be produced’ (312). Kyrana Tsapkini, Gonia Jarema, and Eva Kehayia (315–35) investigate the role of verbal morphology in aphasia during lexical access by studying the...