Paragrammatism

Paragrammatism is the confused or incomplete use of grammatical structures, found in certain forms of speech disturbance.^[1] Paragrammatism is the inability to form grammatically correct sentences. It is characteristic of fluent aphasia, most commonly Receptive aphasia. Paragrammatism is sometimes called "extended paraphasia," although it is different from paraphasia. Paragrammatism is roughly synonymous with "word salad," which concerns the semantic coherence of speech rather than its production.

History

Since Kleist introduced the term in 1916,^[2] paragrammatism denotes a disordered mode of expressing oneself that is characterized by confused and erroneous word order, syntactic structure and/or grammatical morphology ^[3](Schlenck 1991:199f)

Most researchers suppose that the faulty syntactic structure (sentence blends, contaminations, break-offs) results from a disturbance of the syntactic plan of the utterance (de Bleser/Bayer 1993:160f)

In non-fluent aphasia, oral expression is often agrammatic, i.e. grammatically incomplete and/or incorrect. By contrast, expression in fluent aphasia usually appears grammatical, albeit with disruptions in content. Despite this persistent impression, errors of sentence structure and morphology do occur in fluent aphasia, although they take the form of substitutions rather than omissions.^[4]

Etiology

Huber assumes a disturbance of the sequential organization of sentences as the cause of the syntactic errors (1981:3). Most students and practitioners regard paragrammatism as the morphosyntactic "leitsymptom" of Wernicke’s aphasia.

However, ever since the introduction of the term paragrammatism some students have pointed out that paragrammatic and agrammatic phenomena, which in classical theory form part of Broca’s aphasia, may co-occur in the same patient.^[3]

See also

• Lists of language disorders

References

1. "Definition of paragrammatism". Oxford Dictionaries (British & World English).
2. Heeschen, Claus; Kolk, Herman (1988). "Agrammatism and paragrammatism". Aphasiology 2 (3–4): 299–302. doi:10.1080/02687038808248928. ISSN 0268-7038.
3. Butterworth, Brian; Howard, David (1987). "Paragrammatisms". Cognition 26 (1): 1–37. doi:10.1016/0010-0277(87)90012-6. ISSN 0010-0277. PMID 3608394.
4. "Understanding paragrammatism: A comparative case study". Aphasiology (2008).

Further reading

• Bates E, Friederici A, Wulfeck B (December 1987). "Grammatical morphology in aphasia: evidence from three languages". Cortex 23 (4): 545–74. doi:10.1016/s0010-9452(87)80049-7. PMID 3327655.
• Bastiaanse, R.; Edwards, S.; Kiss, K. (1996). "Fluent aphasia in three languages: Aspects of spontaneous speech". Aphasiology 10 (6): 561–575. doi:10.1080/02687039608248437. ISSN 0268-7038.
• Bleser, R. De (1987). "From agrammatism to paragrammatism: German aphasiological traditions and grammatical disturbances". Cognitive Neuropsychology 4 (2): 187–256. doi:10.1080/02643298708252039. ISSN 0264-3294.
• Butterworth, Brian; Panzeri, Marta; Semenza, Carlo; Ferreri, Tiziana (1990). "Paragrammatisms: A longitudinal study of an Italian patient". Language and Cognitive Processes 5 (2): 115–140. doi:10.1080/01690969008402101. ISSN 0169-0965.
• Eling, Paul; de Bot, Kees; Keyser, Antoine; van der Sande, Catrientje (1987). "Paragrammatic speech without a comprehension deficit? A case report". Brain and Language 31 (1): 36–42. doi:10.1016/0093-934X(87)90059-9. ISSN 0093-934X. PMID 2437996.