Linguistics and Adults with Language Disorders: Modelling the Theory

A special issue of Languages (ISSN 2226-471X).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 February 2023) | Viewed by 5874

Special Issue Editors

School of Health Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich NR4 7TJ, UK
Interests: aphasia; language disorders; neurolinguistics; primary progressive aphasia; ageing; syntax; pragmatic; phonology
School of Foreign Languages, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China
Interests: aphasia recovery; neurolinguistics; Mandarin Chinese

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

We would like to invite you to submit a research paper on the topic “Linguistics and Adults with Language Disorders”. Research on language pathologies in adults has seen an increase in the number of languages that have been included (Garraffa and Fyndanis, 2020) with a lot still to be covered to understand the impact of the patient’s native language for example in the clinical presentations of symptoms in language disorders (Canu et al., 2020). Nonetheless, there is still a large gap to be filled with languages underrepresented in science and consequent lack of research-based practices for informing language intervention for people with language pathologies. In this Special Issue, we are interested in expanding the panorama of languages promoting research at the interface between linguistics and language pathologies with a theoretical focus and considering adult speakers with a language disorder. Both studies with adults with aphasia and other language disorders in adults will be considered with a preference for studies informed by theoretical approaches ( see for example Druks,2017 seminal book on syntax and Arcara et al., 2020 approaches on pragmatics). Topics in any aspects of linguistics will be of interest as well as clinical studies based on theoretical models (Thompson and Shapiro, 2005), with no restriction of the theoretical approach adopted (usage-based, cognitive linguistics, generative grammar, …). The Guest Editors will contribute an editorial dedicated to the contribution of minoritized languages to research on language pathologies. We are sure that those who are willing to contribute to this volume will share with us the conviction that there is a need for more studies on multilingual speakers with language pathologies and speakers of under-represented languages.

We request that, prior to submitting a manuscript, interested authors initially submit a proposed title and an abstract of 400-600 words summarizing their intended contribution. Please send it to the corresponding guest editors (m.garraffa@uea.ac.uk) or to /Languages/ editorial office (languages@mdpi.com). Abstracts will be reviewed by the guest editors for the purposes of ensuring proper fit within the scope of the Special Issue. Full manuscripts will undergo double-blind peer-review.

Tentative completion schedule:

  • Abstract submission deadline: 30 June 2022
  • Notification of abstract acceptance: 31 July 2022
  • Full manuscript deadline: 31 December 2022

References:

Arcara G., E. Tonini, G. Muriago, E. Mondin, E. Sgarabottolo, G. Bertagnoni, C. Semenza, V. Bambini (2020) Pragmatics and figurative language in individuals with Traumatic Brain Injury: Fine-grained assessment and Relevance-theoretic considerations. Aphasiology 34(8):1070–1100

Canu, E., Agosta, F., Battistella, G., Spinelli, E. G., DeLeon, J., Welch, A. E., Mandelli, M. L., Hubbard, H. I., Moro, A., Magnani, G., Cappa, S. F., Miller, B. L., Filippi, M., & Gorno-Tempini, M. L. (2020). Speech production differences in English and Italian speakers with nonfluent variant PPA. Neurology, 94(10), e1062–e1072.

Druks, J. (2017). Contemporary and emergent theories of agrammatism: A neurolinguistic approach. Oxfordshire: Routledge.

Garraffa, M. & Fyndanis, V. (2020). Linguistic theory and aphasia: an overview. Aphasiology, 34 (8), 905–926.

Thompson, C. K., & Shapiro, L. P. (2005). Treating agrammatic aphasia within a linguistic framework: Treatment of Underlying Forms. Aphasiology19(10–11), 1021–1036. https://doi.org/10.1080/02687030544000227

Dr. Maria Garraffa
Dr. Haiyan Wang
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Languages is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • aphasia
  • language pathologies
  • minority languages
  • multilingualism
  • acquired language disorders
  • primary progressive aphasia
  • dementia
  • ageing

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

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24 pages, 454 KiB  
Article
Main Concepts in the Spoken Discourse of Persons with Aphasia: Analysis on a Propositional and Linguistic Level
by Jelena Kuvač Kraljević, Ana Matić Škorić and Karolina Lice
Languages 2023, 8(2), 120; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages8020120 - 28 Apr 2023
Viewed by 1571
Abstract
Individuals produce discourse for various purposes as part of their daily functioning. Therefore, the ability to form a discourse should be one of the main goals of functional speech-language therapy for persons with aphasia (PwA). In addition to assessing the language skills required [...] Read more.
Individuals produce discourse for various purposes as part of their daily functioning. Therefore, the ability to form a discourse should be one of the main goals of functional speech-language therapy for persons with aphasia (PwA). In addition to assessing the language skills required to form a discourse, it is important to analyse how PwA form general ideas that need to be narrated. This study had two specific aims: (1) to investigate the ability of PwA, with special consideration to the stage of their recovery—the acute and the chronic phase—to form main concepts in a discourse, and (2) to examine the relationship between the number of main concepts and different types of language measures related to productivity, informativeness, and grammaticality in all tested groups. Participants included a total of 38 persons with mild and moderate aphasia (19 in the acute and 19 in the chronic phase of recovery) and 38 healthy speakers (HS) who were matched in age, gender, and level of education. In order to effectively compare the discourse produced by the groups, a single structured stimulus was used, whereby all participants were asked to orally describe a picture from the Croatian version of the Comprehensive Aphasia Test. Compared to the HS, the main concepts produced by PwA were different in number, as well as in terms of their accuracy and completeness. However, when analysing the success in the production of the main concepts with regard to the time post-stroke—acute and chronic—the difference was not confirmed, indicating great individual differences between PwA that undermine the differences on a group level. Linguistic measures of informativeness (CIUs and CIU/words) and only one measure of grammaticality (number of clauses) showed a significant correlation with the number of main concepts in PwA. When analysing correlations for PwA in the acute and chronic phases, only CIU showed a significant association with MC, confirming it as a robust measure of discourse production in PwA. PwA did not produce long and complex sentences, and they showed difficulties in the use of verbs and the marking of argument structures. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Linguistics and Adults with Language Disorders: Modelling the Theory)

Review

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26 pages, 767 KiB  
Review
Grammar in Adults with Neurodevelopmental Disorders: A Scoping Review from the Last 10 Years
by Giuditta Smith, Benedetta Bianchi Janetti, Megha Sarin and Maria Garraffa
Languages 2023, 8(4), 248; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages8040248 - 23 Oct 2023
Viewed by 1316
Abstract
Little is known of the trajectory of grammar in neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs) once adulthood and language maturity are reached. Yet, impairments in grammar are reported in children with both communication NDDs, such as Developmental Language Disorder (DLD), and other NDDs, including ASD and [...] Read more.
Little is known of the trajectory of grammar in neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs) once adulthood and language maturity are reached. Yet, impairments in grammar are reported in children with both communication NDDs, such as Developmental Language Disorder (DLD), and other NDDs, including ASD and ADHD. In the present study, we review studies collected in the last ten years on the grammar of adults with NDDs. Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines were applied. Included studies assessed sentence-level grammatical abilities through quantitative experiments on adults with a diagnosis of a developmental disorder. Out of 1550 contributions, 29 were selected. The studies included in the review showed that individuals with NDDs show a language deficit when compared to healthy adults. However, a lack of a unified approach to investigations of grammar prevents comparisons on the nature of the language disorder across NDDs, consequently highlighting the existence of a gap in knowledge. This gap must be filled to the benefit of speech pathologists and, ultimately, their patients. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Linguistics and Adults with Language Disorders: Modelling the Theory)
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18 pages, 745 KiB  
Review
Sentence Production in Bilingual and Multilingual Aphasia: A Scoping Review
by Aslam Norhan, Fatimah Hani Hassan, Rogayah A Razak and Mohd Azmarul A Aziz
Languages 2023, 8(1), 72; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages8010072 - 02 Mar 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1912
Abstract
Language processing impairments across different dimensions result in deficits of informational content, syntactic complexity, and morphological well-formedness of sentences produced by people with aphasia (PWA). Deficits in language processing affect linguistic skills of bi/multilingual PWA in all languages that they have acquired prior [...] Read more.
Language processing impairments across different dimensions result in deficits of informational content, syntactic complexity, and morphological well-formedness of sentences produced by people with aphasia (PWA). Deficits in language processing affect linguistic skills of bi/multilingual PWA in all languages that they have acquired prior to aphasia. However, the impairments of dual or multiple languages in aphasia may not necessarily be parallel. One language may be more preserved than another and be recovered at different paces, including sentence production abilities. This scoping review aims to compare syntactic characteristics and errors demonstrated by bi/multilingual PWAs between their acquired languages and to explore the nature of bilingual impairments in primary progressive aphasia (PPA). We conducted an online search on three databases (MEDLINE, SciVerse Scopus, and Taylor and Francis publications) for original studies on sentence production of bi/multilingual aphasia that were published between 1991 and 2021 using keywords related to “bilingualism”, “aphasia”, and “speech production”. Based on the titles, abstracts, and full-text screenings, 13 studies were found to have met our inclusion criteria. A qualitative synthesis of the accumulated evidence was conducted following the PRISMA guidelines. Collectively, past researchers reported dominance in L1 with higher occurrences of linguistic errors in L2 among participants with sudden onset aphasia. In PPA, language impairments were found to be comparable between L1 and L2, which may indicate parallel deterioration. It is noted that this review is not exhaustive and many of the reviewed studies were based on single case studies. This review also highlighted an urgent need for investigation into multilingual PPA to fully comprehend the nature of sentence production impairment. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Linguistics and Adults with Language Disorders: Modelling the Theory)
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