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

Implications of Research on Bilingual and Polyglot Aphasia Research conducted on bilingual and polyglot 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 variation between individual cases, the most important thing to come out of this research is a set of factors involved in these aphasia cases as well 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 pathological implication—determining what is missing or misplaced inside a bilingual or polyglot aphasic’s brain—also shares importance with determining how different languages are structured in the brain. The history of research on bilingual aphasia into the 20th century begins with the work of two 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 basis for his work, published Etude sur l’aphasie des polyglottes in 1895 (Lebrun 11). Ribot’s conclusion about recovery in polyglot aphasics is known as Ribot’s rule, which basically states that L1 will recover more than any L2’s. Pitres’ rule, built off of Ribot’s, takes a different approach in saying that the language used most often â€Å"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 have cropped up which match both theories, so further research has attempted to explain variances in recovery of specific languages through other means. Also, after Pitres, the research focus became more one of examining deficits in syntax and morphology in an attempt to explain brain construction, and less of an analysis of â€Å"interesting language recovery† in these patients. Examining Theoretical Issues Another important component 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 â€Å"bilingual† is a hazy one, the distinction between the two concepts comes with the context of acquisition.