bilig-31/ Autumn 2004

Linguistic Analysis of Language Disorders of Turk Patients Suffering from Brain Damages

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Gulmira Sadiyeva

Abstract : When brain damages affects the speech center located in the left hemisphere, a patient is diagnosed with aphasia. The research of language disorders during aphasia are the main objects of neurolinguistics. The aim of the research is to observe language disorders of Turk patients with aph asia , to write them down and to make linguistic analysis of them.

This research was conducted at the Neurological Branch of Republic Clinical Hospital ( Baku ) on 16 Azerbaijani aphasia patients, as well as at the Branch of Audiology and Speech Disorders of Faculty of Medicine at Hacettepe University ( Ankara ) on 8 Turk patients.

As a result of this research, the language disorders of Azerbaijanies and Turks patients with aphasia are analyzed and systematized at phonetic, lexical and grammatical levels.

Analysis at phonetic level allows us to make a conclusion (which differs from the opinion of a group of scientists) that sound disorders in the speech of patients with aphasia subdue definite rules and are phonetically analyzed and systematized. Analyzed sound disorders were classified in the research to the groups according to the 8 features.

Lexical analysis of patients' speech reveals that disorders of this level are main features of sensor aphasia. The relation between the meaning of the word and its utterances' forms during the patients' speech were analyzed in the research.

Disorders at grammatical level depends on the type of aphasia as the research reveals. Analysis Turk patient's speech on grammatical level registers decrease or disappearance verbs, conjunctions, postpositions; increase or decrease quantity of nouns (depending on the form of aphasia), frequently use automatic words, supplemental constructions in their speech.

This linguistic analysis can be used in the methodology of the speech rehabilitation of Turk patients suffering from aphasia. Improving of patients' speech to whom we used the methods of speech rehabilitation confirms this fact. At the conclusion of the research are given some recommendations on the speech rehabilitation.