How do our brains enable us to speak creatively and build up an understanding of language? This concise and accessible book examines the linguistic and neuro-anatomical underpinnings of language and considers how language skills can systematically break down in individuals with different types of brain damage, such as children with language disorders, adults with right-hemisphere brain damage, demented patients, and people with reading problems. In a wide-ranging discussion, the authors also cover the effects of brain damage on bilingual people, as well as the reading and writing difficulties experienced by dyslexics and dysgraphics. Information is also provided on 'split-brain' patients, visual-gestural languages, and language savants. By studying the linguistic behaviour of these groupings, the authors provide an understanding of how language is organized in the brain.
Preface; 1. Neurolinguistics; 2. The brain; 3. How we know what we know about brain organization for language; 4. Aphasia: classification of the syndromes; 5. Aphasia: what underlies the syndromes; 6. Childhood aphasia and other language disorders; 7. Right-brain-damage; 8. Dementia; 9. Disorders of the written word: dyslexia and dysgraphia; 10. Bilingualism; 11. Language organisation; 12. The future of neurolinguistic study; Glossary; Notes and further reading; Index.
