Dual Processing of Open- and Closed-Class Words

• Published in: Brain and language Vol. 57; no. 3; pp. 360 - 373
• Main Authors: Biassou, Nadia, Obler, Loraine K., Nespoulous, Jean-Luc, Dordain, Monique, Harris, Katherine S.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: San Diego, CA Elsevier Inc 01.05.1997; Elsevier
• Subjects: Adult and adolescent clinical studies; Aged; Agrammatism; Aphasia, Broca - physiopathology; Biological and medical sciences; Brain - physiopathology; Brocas Aphasia; Form Classes; French; Functional Laterality; Humans; Language and communication disorders; Male; Medical sciences; Phonological Processing; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Vocabulary; Words; Human; Nervous system diseases; Verbal fluidity; Agrammatism; Central nervous system disease; Broca aphasia; Error; Phonology; Neurological disorder; Oral reading; Language disorder; Cerebral disorder
• ISSN: 0093-934X; 1090-2155
• DOI: 10.1006/brln.1997.1749

A series of articles in the past two decades has suggested differential processing of open- and closed-class lexical items by normal adults. Difficulties in replicating a crucial study (Bradley, 1978), however, have weakened the dual route hypothesis. We matched 16 French open-class items to 16 closed-class items for phonological structure, word length, and relative word frequency. Three agrammatic aphasics were asked to read each word in isolation and in a sentence context. Error analysis revealed strikingly more phonological errors on closed-class than open-class items. Dysfluencies were greater on closed-class items and contributed to greater overall reading time for the closed-class words, consistent with a two-route model for the production of closed- and open-class lexical items in Broca's aphasics and, thus, normals.