Syntactic diagnosis and treatment of aphasia:
Investigating Aphasic Diagnostic Profiles and Linguistic Specific Treatment
Investigator: Dr Adams Bodomo, Department of Linguistics, The University of Hong Kong
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ABOUT THE PROJECT
Aphasia, ‘an impairment of language, affecting the production or comprehension of speech and the ability to read or write’ (National Aphasia Association, 1999), is a kind of brain malfunction which leads to abnormal linguistic production and comprehension. Aphasia then is an apt topic at the intersection of studies involving language, mind and brain. A major issue in the study of the nature of aphasia is what kind of linguistic items are lost or malfunction in the speech of an aphasic patient. Results from such studies can lead to a better diagnosis of what type of aphasia the patient is suffering from. Based on new approaches to the analysis of Chinese and other languages in Lexical-Functional Grammar perspectives (e.g. Bodomo and Luke 2003; Bodomo, Lam and Yu forthcoming; and Lam 2004), this project proposes to investigate the speech of two or more Cantonese-speaking aphasics to find out what types of linguistic items malfunction in their speech. It will also investigate whether these findings can be used to better evaluate and improve on existing diagnostic tests such as the Aphasic Diagnostic Profiles (ADP) test and on existing treatment mechanisms such as Linguistic Specific Treatment (LST).
(This project is part of the larger research project titled "Development in Applied Neuroscience: Promotion of Brain Functions", led by Dr. Tatia Lee, Department of Psychology, The University of Hong Kong.)
University Development Fund
