Linguistics and Agrammatism

The goal of this article is to familiarize the reader who has background in theoretical linguistics with some of the recent research in aphasiology. Needless to say, it is far beyond the space limitation, and my capacity, to present all work carried out in the field of language impairment, even during the last decade. My goal is more modest: I will attempt to demonstrate how the interaction of theoretical linguistics and aphasiology can inform both disciplines; what impact the development of linguistics as a field has had on our understanding of language breakdown, and how studies of aphasia can be beneficial for our understanding of the human unimpaired linguistic capacity. In this article therefore I will focus, primarily, on the psycholinguistic research that approached investigation of aphasia from a linguistic, theory-based perspective. It is my hope that the results presented below will further encourage linguists to view aphasiology as an important source for our understanding of the human linguistic capacity, and that aphasiologists will be further inspired to view theoretical linguistics as an important, if not necessary, tool for obtaining a better picture of language impairment.