The Processing of Compound Words: A Study in Aphasia

• Published in: Brain and language Vol. 61; no. 1; pp. 54 - 62
• Main Authors: Delazer, Margarete, Semenza, Carlo
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: San Diego, CA Elsevier Inc 01.01.1998; Elsevier
• Subjects: Adult; Adult and adolescent clinical studies; Aphasia; Aphasia - diagnosis; Biological and medical sciences; Cerebral Hemorrhage - pathology; Cerebral Ventricles - pathology; Compound Words; Disorders of higher nervous function. Focal brain diseases. Central vestibular syndrome and deafness. Brain stem syndromes; Humans; Italian; Language and communication disorders; Male; Medical sciences; Nervous system (semeiology, syndromes); Neurology; Neuropsychological Tests; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Semantic Processing; Speech Perception; Word Recognition; Human; Nervous system diseases; Cognitive disorder; Error; Paraphasia; Naming; Language disorder; Cerebral disorder; Case study; Semantics; Central nervous system disease; Lexical decision; Aphasia; Neurological disorder
• ISSN: 0093-934X; 1090-2155
• DOI: 10.1006/brln.1997.1878

The naming difficulties of an aphasic patient (MB) are almost exclusively confined to compound words. The paraphasias in response to compounds always reflect the compound structure of the targets. Frequent semantically adequate substitution errors suggest the separate processing of single components at the lemma level. MB's specific difficulties probably arise when two lemmas are defined by one lexical entry, as we suggest for compounds. The compound structure, as well as the positions of the single lemmas within the compound, would be specified before lemmas are accessed. The lack of a positional effect in substitution errors suggests a parallel activation of the two components.