Phonological and syntactic influences on semantic misnamings in aphasia

Abstract

Semantic paraphasias from two group studies of picture naming by German aphasic patients were analysed for phonological and syntactic similarities with their targets. Phonological similarity was determined by comparing the targets' phonological form with both the actual semantic paraphasias and the respective semantic competitors (as defined by membership to the targets' semantic fields). Applying this category-sensitive method, the semantic paraphasias were found to be phonologically similar to their targets significantly more often than expected by chance. Syntactic similarity was determined by examining the paraphasias for preservation of the targets' grammatical genders. The number of genderpreserving paraphasias differed significantly from the number expected by chance. Both results are used to discuss the status of semantic paraphasias in current aphasiology and to test predictions derived from psycholinguistic models of language production.