Implications of Research on Bilingual and Polyglot Aphasia :: Essays Papers

Implications of enquiry on Bilingual and Polyglot Aphasia Research conducted on bilingual and linguist aphasics has brought interest into the field of linguistics mainly because of its contribution to L2 research, especially in providing explanations for the organization of distinct languages in the brain. Since there exists such a vicissitude between individual cases, the most important thing to come erupt of this research is a set of factors involved in these aphasia cases as soundly as theories emerging from research. Some of these factors include the language environment in which the aphasic recovers, influence of the L1, language mixing, brain lateralization for language, and the question of whether structurally similar languages follow a similar pattern of deficits and recovery. The main pathologic implicationdetermining what is missing or misplaced inside a bilingual or polyglot aphasics brain besides shares importance with determining how different languages are st ructured in the brain. The write up of research on bilingual aphasia into the 20th century begins with the work of deuce Frenchmen at the end of the 19th century by the names of Ribot and Pitres. Ribot wrote his paper, Les maladies de la memoire, in 1881 (Lebrun 12). Pitres, using seven polyglot aphasic patients as the origination for his work, published Etude sur laphasie des polyglottes in 1895 (Lebrun 11). Ribots finale about recovery in polyglot aphasics is known as Ribots rule, which basically states that L1 will recover more than any L2s. Pitres rule, built wrap up of Ribots, takes a different approach in saying that the language utilise most often pre-morbidly(i.e. before the onset of aphasia) is the one which will be regained the fullest, irregardless of that language being an L1 or L2. Various individual cases pass cropped up which match both theories, so further research has assay to explain variances in recovery of specific languages through other means. A lso, later on Pitres, the research focus became more one of examining deficits in syntax and sound structure in an attempt to explain brain construction, and less of an analysis of kindle language recovery in these patients. Examining Theoretical Issues Another important percentage of the study of polyglot aphasia came with the distinction between compound and co-ordinate bilingualism, as examined by Lambert and Fillenbaum (1959). Although the state of being a bilingual is a hazy one, the distinction between the two concepts comes with the context of acquisition.