Hostname: page-component-7b7567c8c-7pwfn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-11-15T10:25:51.855Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Schizophrasia: case study of a paranoid schizophrenic's language

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

Robert K. Herbert and
Karen Z. Waltensperger
Robert K. Herbert*
Affiliation:
State University of New York
Karen Z. Waltensperger
Affiliation:
Wayne State University
*
Robert K. Herbert, Program in Linguistics, State University of New York, Binghamton, NY 13901
Get accessRights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The various descriptions of schizophrenic language have concentrated on a structural treatment of the schizophrenic's spoken or written language or an elucidation of the relationship between linguistic and cognitive disturbances. The structural treatments in fact often focus on the content of schizophrenic discourse, e.g. circumstantiality, flight of ideas, etc., rather than on grammatical structure. In this paper, the linguistic performance of a chronic schizophrenic, paranoid type (DSM-II:295.3) is examined via a large corpus of continuous spoken and written narrative texts collected over a three-year period. A striking agreement was noted in the oral and written language of this subject in features such as the types of agrammatic errors which occur and extreme perseveration. The data reveal important differences with the six characteristics of schizophrenic language noted by Chaika (1974). A brief comparison is made with aphasic and similar neurolinguistic disturbances suggesting organicity in the present case.

Information

Type
Articles
Information
Applied Psycholinguistics , Volume 1 , Issue 1 , February 1980, pp. 81 - 93
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1980

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

REFERENCES

Arieti, S.Interpretation of schizophrenia. New York: Basic Books, 1974.Google Scholar
Bleuler, E.Dementia-praecox and the group of schizophrenias. New York: International Universities Press, 1911 [1950].Google Scholar
Brown, R.Schizophrenia, language and reality. American Psychologist, 1973a, 28, 395–403.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brown, R.A first language. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1973b.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Buckingham, H., Whitaker, H., & Whitaker, H. On linguistic perseveration. In Whitaker, H. & Whitaker, H. (Eds.), Studies in Neurolinguistics, vol. 4. New York: Academic Press, 1979.Google Scholar
Chaika, E.A linguist looks at “schizophrenic” language. Brain and Language, 1974, 1, 113–118.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chaika, E.Schizophrenic speech, slips of the tongue, and jargonaphasia: a reply to Fromkin and to Lecours and Vanier-Clément. Brain and Language, 1977, 4, 464–475.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
[DSM-II] The diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders. Washington, D.C.: American Psychiatric Association, 1968.Google Scholar
Forrest, D. Poesis and the language of schizophrenia. In Vetter, H. (Ed.) Language behavior in schizophrenia. Springfield: Charles C. Thomas, 1968.Google Scholar
Fromkin, V.A linguist looks at “A linguist looks at ‘schizophrenic’ language”. Brain and Language, 1975, 2, 495–500.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goodglass, H. Agrammatism. In Whitaker, H. & Whitaker, H. (Eds.), Studies in Neurolinguistics, vol. 1. New York: Academic Press, 1976.Google Scholar
Goodglass, H., & Geschwind, N. Language disorders (aphasia). In Carterette, E. & Friedman, M. (Eds.), Handbook of Perception. New York: Academic Press, 1976.Google Scholar
Gur, R. E.Left hemisphere dysfunction and overactivation in schizophrenia. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 1978, 87, 226–238.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kasanin, J. S. (Eds.), Language and thought in schizophrenia. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1944.Google Scholar
Lecours, A., & Vanier-Clément, M.Schizophasia and jargonaphasia. Brain and Language, 1976, 3, 516–565.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lewis, N. D. C. History of nosology and the evolution of the concept of schizophrenia. In Hoch, P.H. & Zubin, J. (Eds.), Psychopathology of Schizophrenia. New York: Grune and Stratton, 1966.Google Scholar
Robbins, S. D.A dictionary of speech pathology and therapy. Cambridge, Mass.: Sci-Art Publishers, 1963.Google Scholar
Rochester, S. R., Martin, J. R., & Thurston, S.Thought-process disorder in schizophrenia: the listener's task. Brain and Language, 1977, 4, 95–114.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Salzinger, K.Schizophrenia: behavioral aspects. New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1973.Google Scholar
Schwartz, S. Language and cognition in schizophrenia. In Schwartz, S. (Ed.), Language and cognition in schizophrenia. Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1978.Google Scholar
Szasz, R. S.The myth of mental illness. American Psychologist, 1960, 15, 113–118.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vetter, H. (Ed.), Language behavior and schizophrenia. Springfield, Ill.: Charles C. Thomas, 1968.Google Scholar
Whitaker, H., & Whitaker, H. Language disorders. In Wardhaugh, R. and Brown, H. (Eds.), A survey of applied linguistics. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1976.Google Scholar