Abstract
Formal inquiry into language factors in stuttering can be said to have begun with a series of articles that appeared between 1935 and 1945 largely in the Journal of Speech Disorders. These publications, authored principally by S.F. Brown (Brown, 1937b, 1938a, 1938b, 1938c, 1943, 1945; Brown & Moren, 1942; Johnson & Brown, 1935, 1939), reported the results of research he had undertaken originally for his master’s thesis (Brown, 1935) and continued for his doctoral dissertation (Brown, 1937a). Although the findings of this early work were of immediate (and lasting) significance, they evidently did not generate much interest in the era during which they were published. The major aspects of the Brown investigations were quickly replicated by Hahn (1942a, 1942b) but, with the exception of a different form of language study (Eisenson & Horowitz, 1945), there was otherwise no evidence of interest in this topic.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Footnotes
Research interest within this general area has placed much more emphasis on possible motor factors (in recent years, for example: Cross & Olson, 1987; McClean, Goldsmith & Cerf, 1984; Tornick & Bloodstein, 1976; Zimmerman, 1980a, 1980b, 1980c; and the International Conference on Speech Motor Dynamics in Stuttering held in Nijmegen, The Netherlands, in 1985). A particular focus in recent times has been the recurrence of attention to phonation (see review by Freeman, 1979; later examples include: Conture, Schwartz, & Brewer, 1985; Ingham, Montgomery, & Ulliana, 1983; Reich, Till, & Goldsmith, 1981). This revival of interest in phonation was precipitated by two articles (Wingate, 1969a, 1970b) that were intended to direct attention to prosodie features in stuttering. In using the term “vocalization” in those articles I had not intended “phonation,” as was erroneously assumed (see Wingate, 1979c).
The so-called evaluational “theory” mentioned in the first two chapters. In addition to the reference cited, another publication (Johnson & Knott, 1955) reveals the extent to which the evaluational conjecture had been developed by the time the S.F. Brown series began. The Johnson and Knott reference, although not formally into print until 1955, was written in late 1935 or early 1936. Johnson’s statements regarding the “cause” of stuttering gained momentum and captured an increasing audience over the period of time covered by the Brown series (1935-1945). However, as noted in the text, procedure and data collection in the Brown series were not affected.
The phonetic factor (see later in this section) would consist of those phonemes (all consonants) stuttered more frequently than this percentage. Additionally, the 9.7% value, rounded off to 10%, would later become a reference value to indicate “average” stuttering.
A1 though not published until 1938, this study was completed before publication of the “Grammatical factors” paper, and it was a reference in the latter paper. The only rationale given for the noncontextual (word list) study was “to study the sound difficulties of stutterers in another type of situation” (Brown, 1938a, p. 390).
Of whom “a majority… would be classed as severe stutterers” (Brown, 1938a, p. 392).
The highest rank correlation for any individual was.81; the median individual rank was only.68.
Also called interstitial, structural, or grammatical words.
The work of Ortleb (1937), Schramm (1937), and Steer and Tiffin (1934).
Note earlier discussion (Chapter 2) to the effect that stuttering does not occur on specific sounds.
“Anticipation” is an absolute synonym for “expectancy” in the orientation to stuttering reflected here; the notions of awareness and apprehension are implicit.
This paper, published in 1943, had been presented to the Congress on General Semantics in 1941.
Note the omission of word stress and word-initial position.
Brown’s rationale for using number of letters instead of number of syllables as the measure of word length was: (1) that stuttering was as closely related to number of letters as it was to number of syllables, and (2) that number of letters is the best measure of the space occupied on a printed page. (The latter suggests a belief that seeing the size of a word would affect an evaluation of its difficulty.)
This claim seems to be a direct contradiction of his 1943 statement (preceding quotation). It seems that a speaker’s most probable, though still unlikely, awareness of the “relative importance of the words he is speaking” would be in respect to what words he stresses, but Brown ignored the dimension of stress.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1988 Marcel E. Wingate
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Wingate, M.E. (1988). Language Factors: Early Findings. In: The Structure of Stuttering. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-9664-6_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-9664-6_3
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4615-9666-0
Online ISBN: 978-1-4615-9664-6
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive