Previous investigations of a single family aggregate with developmental language impairment have suggested that the impaired members are disabled in their ability to use anaphoric pronouns. The present thesis sought to investigate further the use of anaphoric reference in this family using detailed, discourse-oriented analyses. Oral narratives were elicited from eight mature-language users, four language-impaired and four unimpaired. Discourse analysis was accomplished using procedures taken from normal acquisitional studies in which both the form (pronominal or nominal) and the function served by each form (switching or maintaining reference) are considered. The analysis revealed some differences between the language-impaired and unimpaired subjects in their use of pronominals in their narratives. However, three of the four language-impaired subjects used the same nominal-pronominal reference tracking strategies as their unimpaired relatives. The implications of these findings for the general ability of the language-impaired subjects to use pronouns anaphorically as well as future research directions are discussed.

Syntactic and semantic abilities were compared in 12 patients with mild to moderate dementia of the Alzheimer-Type (DAT) and matched controls. In Experiment 1A, performance on naming, word-picture matching, probe verification, and syntactic comprehension was assessed. Experiment 1B tested subjects' ability to use syntactic, semantic, and sentence contexts to choose the correct pronunciation of homographs and the correct spelling of homophones. Group data and individual patterns were reported. The main results revealed that: (1) all patients showed syntactic and semantic deficits; (2) patients were better able to use sentence contexts than syntactic or semantic contexts in isolation; syntax was not significantly different from semantics. The discussion addressed the concept of dissociation between language components, as well as the heterogeneous clinical presentation of DAT.

Four areas of morphosyntax in Arabic-speaking children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI) were investigated: tense, subject-verb agreement, determiners, and prepositions. Spontaneous production data were analyzed for accuracy and error types in using these morphemes. Two groups of typically-developing Arabic-speaking children served as Mean Length Utterance (MLU)-matched and chronological age-matched controls. The results indicate that Arabic-speaking children with SLI were significantly different from the two control groups of children on percentage correct use of tense and subject-verb agreement. Furthermore, when an error in verbal inflection occurred, the substitute form was usually an underspecified/default form, namely the imperative. / The findings of the study are discussed in light of existing theoretical accounts of SLI. Three positions are examined: (a) tense marking constitutes the locus of SLI grammatical difficulties (Extended Optional Infinitive hypothesis, Rice & Wexler, 1996); (b) morphosyntactic problems stem from deficits in agreement relations (Grammatical Agreement Deficit account, Clahsen, 1989; Clahsen, Bartke, & Gollner, 1997); and (c) trouble with inflectional morphology is less pronounced in children with SLI acquiring richly inflected languages (Sparse Morphology account, Leonard, Bortolini, Caselli, McGregor, & Sabbadim, 1992). Special characteristics of Arabic such as its intricate morphological system and null subject properties make it particularly valuable in determining universal versus language-specific aspects of SLI. Clinical implications for SLI in Arabic and directions for future research are also explored.

Infant vocalization undergoes dramatic changes during the transition from newborn cooing and infant babbling toward the production of meaningful speech. However, the processes underlying these changes are not fully understood, particularly at the age at which ambient language input begins to influence infant babbling. The aim of this study was to describe the babbling produced by Arabic infants―using acoustic and phonetic metrics―and then examine the effects of linguistic environmental input on babbling by comparing the babble produced by Arabic infants to that produced by English and French infants. Speech samples were collected from infants learning Arabic (N = 31; age: 281-591 days), English (N = 20; age: 303-553 days) or French (N = 23; age: 311-566 days). Each utterance was transcribed according to the International Phonetic Alphabet and then coded according to infraphonological categories. Two studies were conducted. Study one aimed to describe the vowel space of Arabic infants and then compare it to the vowel space of English and French infants. First (F1) and second (F2) formant frequencies were identified in all vowels produced with full resonance, normal phonation, and speech-like duration. These F1 and F2 frequencies were used to calculate the compact-diffuse (F2 - F1) and grave-acute ([F2+F1]/2) values for each vowel so that the extreme corners of each infant's vowel space could be identified. Multiple regression and analysis of variance analyses were used to examine the effects of language and age on the infant vowel space (centre, corners, and area of the space). Developmental changes in the expansion of the vowel space toward the grave corner were observed in all language groups. In addition, a language-specific pattern of changes on the vowel space were observed with age: Arabic infants showed unchanged F1 and F2 values at the centre of the space, expansion toward the compact corner, a larger vowel space than infants in the other language groups at all ages studied; French infants showed a decreased F1 and unchanged F2 values at the centre, an expansion toward the diffuse corner, and a shrinking from the acute corner toward the center of the vowel space; and English infants showed decreased F2 values but unchanged F1 values at the centre of the vowel space. Study two aimed to describe the consonantal repertoires of Arabic infants and then compare these consonantal repertoires across three infant language groups. Infants were organized into three age groups (10-12, 12-15 and 15-18 months), and the consonants produced in canonical (CS) and marginal (MS) syllables with normal phonation were grouped into manner and place categories. Analysis of variance revealed no significant crosslinguistic differences in the frequency of production of any manner or place categories.This study showed developmental and language-specific changes in the infant vowel space when vowels were submitted to acoustic analysis. However, early crosslinguistic differences in vowel space were not accompanied by crosslinguistic differences in the consonantal repertoires based on phonetic transcription analyses. The overall findings from the current study provide evidence for the interactional hypothesis and suggest that the development of infant babbling is influenced by a complex interaction of endogenous and exogenous processes including biological development of the vocal tract and language input from the ambient environment. / La vocalisation du nourrisson subit des changements importants, du gazouillis du nouveau-né et du babillage du bébé vers la production de la parole significative. Cependant, on ne comprend pas entièrement les processus sous-jacents à ces changements, en particulier l'âge auquel l'acquisition de la langue ambiante commence à influencer le babillage. L'objectif principal de cette étude était de décrire le babillage des tout-petits apprenant l'arabe à l'aide de mesures acoustiques et phonétiques et d'examiner les effets de l'apport de l'environnement linguistique sur le babillage infantile en comparant le babil produit par les jeunes enfants arabes à celui d'enfants apprenant l'anglais ou le français. Des échantillons de parole ont été recueillis auprès de jeunes enfants apprenant l'arabe (N=31; tranche d'âge: 281-591 jours), l'anglais (N=20; tranche d'âge: 303-553 jours) ou le français N=23; tranche d'âge: 311 à 566 jours). Chaque énoncé a été transcrit conformément à l'API, puis codé selon les catégories infraphonologiques.Deux expériences ont été menées. La première visait à décrire l'espace vocalique acoustique des jeunes enfants arabes, et de le comparer à celui de jeunes enfants anglais et français. Les 1res (F1) et 2es (F2) fréquences de formants ont été identifiées dans toutes les voyelles produites avec pleine résonance, phonation normale et durée comme celle de la parole. F1 et F2 ont été utilisées pour calculer les valeurs compact-diffus (F2 - F1) et grave-aigu ([F2 + F1] / 2) pour chaque voyelle, pour identifier les coins extrêmes de l'espace vocalique de chaque enfant. La régression multiple et l'observation des analyses de variance ont été utilisées pour examiner les effets de la langue et de l'âge sur l'espace vocalique infantile (centre, coins, et zone de l'espace). Des changements développementaux dans l'expansion de l'espace vocalique vers le coin grave ont été observés dans tous les groupes linguistiques. De plus, un modèle de changements spécifique au langage de l'espace vocalique a été observé avec l'âge: les enfants arabes ont montré des valeurs F1 et F2 inchangées au centre de l'espace, une expansion vers le coin compact, un espace vocalique plus grand que les enfants des autres groupes de tous les âges étudiés. Les enfants français ont montré une diminution de F1 et des valeurs F2 inchangées au centre, une expansion vers le coin diffus, et un rétrécissement du coin aigu vers le centre de l'espace vocalique et les enfants anglais ont montré une diminution des valeurs F2 et des valeurs F1 inchangées au centre de l'espace vocalique. La deuxième expérience visait à décrire les répertoires consonantiques des enfants arabes et de comparer ces répertoires consonantiques dans trois groupes linguistiques de jeunes enfants. Les consonnes qui ont été produites dans les syllabes canoniques (CS) et marginales (MS) avec la phonation normale ont été incluses dans l'analyse. Les enfants ont été divisés en trois groupes (10-12, 12-15 et 15-18 mois), et les consonnes, regroupées en catégories phonétiques en fonction de la manière et du lieu de production. L'analyse de variance n'a pas révélé de différences significatives translinguistiques dans la fréquence de production pour toutes catégories de manière ou lieu.L'étude a montré des changements développementaux et spécifiques au langage dans l'espace vocalique des tout-petits quand les voyelles ont été soumises à une analyse acoustique. Cependant, des différences translinguistiques précoces dans l'espace vocalique n'étaient pas accompagnées par des différences translinguistiques dans les répertoires consonantiques selon les analyses de transcription phonétique. L'étude actuelle a fourni des preuves de l'hypothèse interactionnelle et suggère que le développement du babillage infantile est influencé par une interaction complexe des processus endogènes et exogènes, notamment le développement biologique du conduit vocal et la langue de l'environnement ambiant.

Monolinguals harness language-specific prosodic cues for the purpose of segmenting out words from the speech stream. However, if and how bilinguals are able to do so in both their languages is less certain. 41 adult English-French bilinguals heard streams of both English- and French- accented nonsense syllables, and then performed a recognition task for syllable sequences. There was no difference between the performance of English- and French- dominant bilinguals, nor between simultaneous versus sequential bilinguals. As a group, English-French bilinguals did show evidence of different segmentation strategies between the English and French language streams. It is therefore concluded that in certain conditions, bilinguals appear to be able to switch stress-based segmentation strategies between their languages. The use of the Hearing in Noise Test (HINT) as a promising new method for measuring language dominance is also discussed. / Les monolingues utilisent les indices prosodiques spécifiques à la langue afin de pouvoir extraire les mots du flot de la parole continue. Toutefois, on n'est pas encore parvenu à expliquer si et comment les bilingues réussissent cette tâche perceptuelle dans leurs deux langues. 41 adultes bilingues anglais-français ont entendu deux flots de parole continue, composés de syllabes dépourvues de sens: un flot était énoncé avec une prononciation anglophone, l'autre avec une prononciation francophone. Ensuite, les participants ont subi une tâche de récognition pour des séquences de syllabes. La dominance d'une langue et l'âge d'acquisition de la deuxième langue n'influençaient point comment les adultes bilingues réagissaient à la tâche. Comme groupe, les bilingues anglais-français semblent alterner leur stratégie de segmentation selon la langue entendue . Nous concluons donc que les bilingues ne traitent pas leurs deux langues de façon identique, du moins dans certaines conditions. L'utilité du Hearing in Noise Test (HINT) comme une mesure nouvelle et prometteuse pour établir la langue dominante est également discutée.

<p> The framework of Optimality Theory has been recently used to develop constraint-based approaches to the analysis of speech patterns produced by children with phonological disorders. A significant benefit of this type of nonlinear analysis is the power to predict interword and intraword variability of phonological productions. Such variability, also known as inconsistency, is a speech characteristic frequently cited by researchers and clinicians as one that (a) critically aids in differentially diagnosing childhood apraxia of speech and (b) supports the theoretical perspective that childhood apraxia of speech is a motor speech disorder. This study applies a constraint-based approach to the phonological analysis of the speech of a single child suspected to present with childhood apraxia of speech. Transcriptions of the participant's speech were obtained from therapy notes written by the clinicians providing his speech services. A thorough phonological analysis of the sample was performed yielding a consonant inventory, two quantitative measurements of variability, and several constraint-based predictions of variability at the segmental and prosodic levels. The results of this study confirm variability as a characteristic of this child's speech. Relatively common and rare variations were successfully predicted by a phonological constraint hierarchy, revealing a rule-based deficit discordant with the theoretical perspective that childhood apraxia of speech is a pure motor speech disorder. It is suggested that the results presented in this study indicate a breakdown in the transformational stage of speech production similar to that of phonological disorders. Implications of this theoretical perspective for future research and clinical practice are discussed. </p>

The present experiment was conducted to explore the facilitory effects of rhyme in lexical processing in brain-damaged individuals. Normal subjects and non-fluent and fluent aphasic subjects performed auditory lexical decision and rhyme judgement tasks, in which prime-target pairs were phonologically related (either identical or rhyming) or unrelated. Results revealed rhyme facilitation of lexical decisions to real-word targets for normal and non-fluent aphasic subjects; for fluent aphasic subjects, results were equivocal. In the rhyme judgement task, facilitory effects of rhyme were found for all three groups with real-word targets. None of the groups showed clear rhyme facilitation effects with non-word targets in either task. Findings are discussed with reference to models of lexical access and the role of phonology in lexical processing in normal and aphasic populations.

The present study traces changes in linguistic complexity in the context of fluency development in four preschool children treated with the Lidcombe Program for Early Stuttering Intervention. Standardized tests of language and phonology were administered pre-treatment. Spontaneous language samples were collected for each participant at 5 preset intervals during the treatment phase. Samples were analyzed for Mean Length of Utterance, Number of Simple and Complex Sentences, Number of Different Words, Morphosyntactic Accuracy, Percentage of Stuttered Syllables and Normal Speech Dysfluencies, and Loci of Stuttered Moments. Analysis of the data revealed that all participants presented with language skills in the average and above average range, and achieved an increase in stutter-free speech without decreasing their linguistic complexity. However, all children scored consistently below the average range in Number of Different Words. Theoretical implications, as well as clinical implications and directions for future research are discussed.

Compensatory articulation was investigated in normal and brain-damaged individuals by comparing vowel production under normal and perturbed speaking conditions. The effects of fixed mandibular positioning on first and second formant frequencies of the vowels (u i ae a) were investigated in ten normal subjects, six nonfluent aphasics and six fluent aphasics. Adaptation to perturbation was examined under compensatory and noncompensatory conditions, in which the degree of mandibular opening posed maximal and minimal interference respectively, with reference to normal articulatory positioning. F1 and F2 values, determined by linear predictive coding, were measured at the onset and midpoint of glottal pulsing to identify changes in compensation over time. Results of statistical analyses indicated variable effects of perturbation in both the normal and aphasic subject groups. Analyses of the data with respect to perceptual difference limens suggested that formant deviations in compensatory and noncompensatory productions of all subjects groups would have resulted in changes in vowel quality. The results were interpreted as indicating that compensatory performance, although evident, was neither complete nor immediate in any of the subject groups tested. Moreover, articulatory reorganization and compensation for fixed mandibular positioning appeared to be preserved in nonfluent and fluent aphasics. The findings are discussed with respect to models of speech motor programming and neurogenic models of speech production.

A review of the literature on speech prosody suggests that the right hemisphere may be crucial in expressing and perceiving prosodic information, although hypotheses concerning the underlying nature of this specialization remain disparate (e.g., Behrens, 1988; Ross, 1981; Van Lancker & Sidtis, 1992). To illuminate the right hemisphere's role in prosodic processing, and to explore the interaction between linguistic and emotional suprasegmental cues in speech production and perception, two experiments were conducted. In Experiment 1, utterances conveying three prosodic distinctions (emphatic stress, sentence modality, emotional tone) were elicited from normal (NC) and right-hemisphere-damaged (RHD) adults and then subjected to acoustic analysis. Results indicated that the intonation patterns produced by RHD patients were relatively normal in overall shape, but significantly restricted in fundamental frequency (F$ sb0$) variation relative to those produced by normal subjects. The RHD speakers also supplied fewer duration and F$ sb0$ cues to emphatic stress, and demonstrated aberrant control of speech rate and mean F$ sb0$ in expressing discrete emotions relative to the NC speakers. In Experiment 2, six receptive tasks in which the F$ sb0$ or duration parameters of prosodic stimuli were systematically altered, were presented to NC, RHD, and left-hemisphere-damaged (LHD) adults for linguistic or emotional identification. Results obtained for this experiment revealed that both the RHD and LHD patients were impaired in the recognition of emotional prosody, but that only the LHD patients were disturbed in perceiving linguistic specifications via prosodic cues. The outcome of both experiments is discussed with respect to current theories of the lateralization of prosodic processing.