Introduction

Even though the theme of psycholinguistics and its relationship with the human mind and
language is a well-known and often repeated fact, it is important to repeat again that the human
brain plays a significant role in language acquisition which is further on an important area in
psycholinguistic research. Scientists claim that our brain is divided into two parts, the left
hemisphere and the right hemisphere. The relationship between hemispheres is contralateral,
which means that the left side of the brain controls the right side and the right side controls the
left side of the brain. It is in the interest of this paper that the left part of the brain is responsible
for language; but also when it comes to the brain damage, caused by head injuries, stroke or
some kind of infection, there is an enormous possibility that we will encounter some sort of
language disorder in this side of the brain.
According to John Field, language disorder is a divergence from the normal processes of
speech and comprehension due to cognitive or affective factors. This term also covers problems
of speech production and reception which are physiological in origin (2004: 92). There are
various language disorders depending on which part in the brain is damaged. The problems are
usually connected with reception and production of language. We can also divide it on problems
with writing and problems with speaking. The most common language disorders are stuttering,
dyslexia and dysgraphia. Stuttering is connected with spoken language and it represents a
problem with production of language. A person who has this kind of problem usually repeats
some syllables or words and lengths some syllables. This is caused by the blocking of the airflow
and the speech becomes difficult (Field, 2003:87). Regarding the written impairment we
distinguish dyslexia, which is connected with reading difficulties and dysgraphia, connected with
writing difficulties.
All these impairments can be acquired or developmental, depending on time when they
happened. Acquired impairment happens when the first language is established completely and it
happens due to some brain injury (stroke, infection, surgery) and developmental impairment
happens during the first language acquisition and it is due to process and affective problems.
Many other illnesses and disorders we can link with language, for example dementia, autism,

Downs syndrome, Williams syndrome, specific language impairment (SLI), blindness and
deafness.
Taking into account that language disorder is a very broad topic to discuss, this paper will try
to narrow its subject matter mostly on disabilities in spoken language, and focus on and explain
the problems of aphasia. This paper will be written as an overview of this specific impairment,
its localisation in the brain, causes, different types and its manifestation. In other words, the main
goal of this paper is to introduce the reader with the term aphasia, its origin and classification;
but later on also to show how this problem is manifested and to provide examples of its
manifestation. The main focus will be on Wernickes and Brocas aphasia, while other known
types of aphasia will be only mentioned and briefly described.

Aphasia
Many doctors and psychologists gave their definition of aphasia and in some way they are all
similar and deal with the same problems. John Field defined it as a disorder in the ability to
produce or to understand spoken language. It usually results from brain damage caused by an
accident, a stroke or invasive surgery; but some accounts include the effects of dementia
(2004:16). The term aphasia we can also connect with the problems with the use of language,
expression and comprehension depending on which kind of injury a person suffered.
There are many features of aphasia and many researches made their own classification of
aphasia and its characteristics. The main feature of aphasia is that it can be fluent and non-fluent.
This distinction is mainly made by Wernicke, but many researchers use it. Another, also very
important feature is anomia which we can connect with the problem of word-finding. It
describes a problem with retrieving or accessing common words like the names of things, actions
and events (Damico, Mller, Ball, 2010:323). Further on, there is semantic paraphasias, a
feature where a person does not produce a correct word but some other word which is
semantically related to that word. We can distinguish phonemic paraphasia, literal paraphasia,
formal paraphasia and jargonaphasia. We also have to mention agrammatism as one of the
significant features of aphasia. We can define it as impairment in the use of syntax (Damico,
Mller, Ball, 2010:324). The result of agrammatism is the absence of some functional words,
auxiliaries and other words that are not content words. We should not also forget to mention
dyslexia and dysgraphia as one of the features of aphasia, but also repetition and comprehension
impairments which are very often in cases of aphasia.
The problem of aphasia has its origin far in the past, but in that period it was not explained
enough because people were not well educated back then. People dealt with aphasia even in the
ancient Greece and during the Roman Empire. However, the problem of aphasia reached its peak
in the late nineteenth century and in the beginning of the twentieth century when people started
to explore it in depth. The main contribution can be ascribed to a French surgeon Paul Broca
(1824-1880) and a German doctor Carl Wernicke (1848-1905). In 1863, Paul Broca, described
the severe language impairment of some twenty patients. In nineteen cases, the problems with

language appeared to have resulted from a brain lesion on the left side of the head, just in front of
the ear and slightly below the top of it. Later, in 1874, Carl Wernicke, demonstrated a language
deficit associated with damage to a different area. This one was just behind and above the left ear
(Field, 2003:53). These two areas are known as Brocas area and Wernickes area. Two main
types of aphasia are named by these areas - Brocas aphasia and Wernickes aphasia. Their
position in the brain is shown in the following figure:

There are also many other types of aphasia which are worth mentioning as conduction aphasia,
global aphasia, transcortical motor aphasia, transcortical sensory aphasia. However, these types
will not be discussed in this paper in detail.
Brocas Aphasia
Brocas aphasia is closely connected with speaking and writing impairments. It is
characterised as non-fluent, expressive and motor aphasia. People with this impairment have
difficulties with speech production and they omit function words and inflections, so this type of
aphasia is described as telegraphic (they use just content words just like telegraphs) and
agrammatic (without grammar). The speech is short and meaningful and these problems also
appear in writing when people omit some words or letters also in writing. Later, as the research
on this type of aphasia continued, it was discovered that Brocas aphasia has an influence on
comprehension, too. People with this aphasia have difficulties to comprehend what is told to

them, especially sentences with complex structure. Unlike patients with Wernicke's aphasia, the
patient with Broca's aphasia is invariably faced with a right-sided motor defect (often a complete
hemiparesis more marked in the upper extremity and face) (Taylor Sarno, 1998:35). In the
following transcript we can see how this type of aphasia is manifested.
A transcript of a conversation between a patient with Brocas aphasia (B) and the therapist (A):
A: they do all sorts of activities/ . woodwork and
B : no/ me cook/
A: you cook! great!
B: aye/ . once a week/
A: yeah/ . that's today/ Thursday/
B: aye/ . and then/ - night-time/ seven o'clock swimming/
A: really/
B: yes / . smashing/
A: how do you manage one-handed/
B: oh it's all right/ aye/ . mate/ . mate . Jack comes and all! but - er/ . oh dear/.Jack er . old/ er - seventy/ . no . sixty-eight! . Jack! - but swim/ . me . me l i ke this/ swimming - er/ - I can't say it/ - but Jack/ - er - swimming on front! . er - back
A: so he can do B: aye/ but one hand
(transcript source: Field, 2003:54)
Wernickes Aphasia
The main characteristic of Wernickes aphasia is fluent but meaningless speech. It is also
defined as fluent, receptive and sensory aphasia. The speech might be grammatically correct but
it is nonsense, it does not have a meaning. Paraphasias in Wernickes aphasia may include jargon
or neologistic paraphasias (among others), which are utterances which sound like words of the
speakers language, but are in fact not real words. For instance, a patient with Wernickes aphasia
may produce a neologism like glick, which is not a true word but conforms to phonological
rules of the language (Peach, Shapiro, 2012:208). People with Wernickes aphasia mostly use
word substitution. They do not use the proper word but some similar sounds or associations. So

usually it is comprehension that is severely impaired in cases of Wernickes aphasia. The

following transcript shows how Wernickes aphasia can be manifested.
A transcript of a conversation between a patient with Wernickes aphasia (B) and the therapist
(A):
A: so you were at Dunkirk/
B: yes/
A: what do you remember of that/
B: [na na] not very far because they kicked us out!
A: do/did you have to get a boat from the beach/
B: yes/ but then we had to come back because they were/ - [sa psa psa psa] they were
sending things down/ you know/ so we came back/ . we came back! and we /came
u p from - / right u p / then we got out! - once/ - er er a gun/ er no/ . what do they call
them/ the very little/ the small men/ . the small A: the small men/
B: no/ small soldiers/ . no/ the other one/ . say . not soldier/ . not soldier- /
B: are they the Gurkhas/
B: no/ . no/ . what's the opposite to a soldier/
A: sailor
B: that's it/
(transcript source: Field, 2003:55)
Conduction Aphasia
Conduction aphasia is characterized by an intact ability to understand spoken and written
language, intact ability to produce fluent, grammatical speech, but a marked inability to repeat
the verbatim form of phrases and sentences (Traxler, 2012:486). The main characteristic of this
impairment is actually repetition. People with conduction aphasia often omit words or reverse
them or even substitute them (mostly in written language). They are really good as far as
comprehension is concerned, but they have difficulties to repeat what they have heard. For
example, people with this type of aphasia might substitute a closely related sound for the one

they actually hear, e.g. for 'teethe' (the verb) they say 'teeth' (the noun) and for 'bubble' they say
'bupple' (here inventing a new word but one that conforms to the sound pattern of English)
(Steinberg, Nagata, Aline, 2001: 334)
Global Aphasia
In the case of global aphasia all language functions are impaired. People with his kind of
aphasia have a difficulty to communicate at all; their expressiveness is limited only on
repetitions. All skills are impaired, including expressive and receptive skills and comprehension.
This is the most severe impairment that can happen and it is due to damage in numerous sites in
the left hemisphere of the brain. One woman who had suffered a massive stroke could say
nothing but four nonsense syllables, ga dak la doh, every time she tried to speak (Steinberg,
Nagata, Aline, 2001: 334)
Transcortical Aphasia
The last type of aphasia mentioned earlier is transcortical. There are two types of this aphasia:
transcortical motor aphasia and transcortical sensory aphasia. Transcortical motor aphasia is nonfluent as Brocas aphasia and its main characteristic is repetition. People with this aphasia have
good comprehension but their speech is non-fluent and very short.

On the other hand,

transcortical motor aphasia is characterized by a marked reduction in the quantity and

complexity of spontaneous speech in the presence of a retained ability to repeat (Murdoch,
1990:80). People with transcortical sensory aphasia have fluent speech but their disability is
comprehension. Transcortical sensory aphasia usually consists of empty or jargon-filled speech.
People with this rare type of aphasia cannot comprehend what others say to them, but these
individuals can repeat words or sentences (Peach, Shapiro, 2012:208)

Conclusion
To sum up everything that was stated in the previous sections of this paper, we can once more
repeat that this paper tried to introduce the readers with the problem of aphasia, its types and
most important researches and discoveries related to this topic. Even though people faced with
aphasic problems and their manifestation since the ancient times, aphasia has not been explained
enough until the nineteenth century. Thus, thanks to Paul Broca and Carl Wernicke, and their
research aphasia has been identified as an important and severe impairment which manifests in
numerous ways.
As it was already mentioned in the introductory part, the main goal of this paper was to give
the readers a short overview of all types of aphasia and the ways they are represented and
manifested. Having in mind that the second part of this paper thoroughly described the two most
important types of aphasia (Brocas and Wernickes) and gave examples of its manifestation, it
can be easily said that its main goals were achieved. All in all, the reader can have a clearer idea
of aphasia as language impairment and the ways it can be explained and expressed.

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