Abstract
The results of the research reported in Part III constitute evidence that substantiates the implications, contained in certain earlier sources, that stuttering is a disorder of oral language expression. More specifically, in corroboration of certain previous work (e.g., Wingate, 1966b, 1967a, 1967b, 1968, 1971, 1979a), these findings also constitute evidence that stuttering is a defect in the language production system, a defect that extends beyond the level of motor execution. Stuttering may give the appearance of being a peripheral disorder, and from time to time it has been described as a problem involving one or another of the peripheral systems (breathing, Phonation, articulation), or some incoordination among the three. Such accounts are limited to superficial aspects of the disorder. There is ample evidence to indicate that the defect is not simply one of motor control or coordination, but that it involves more central functions of the language production system.
A hair, perhaps, divides the False and True; Yes; and a single Alif were the clue— Could you but find it. Quatrain 50 The Rubaiyat
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Footnotes
Recall that the significant difference found in this research is supported by results obtained in previous research using a word-fluency measure (Okasha et al., 1974; Weuffen, 1961; Wingate, 1968).
I recognize that the central representation of a phoneme may be more abstracted than its representation at the surface (production), but this possible distinction does not seem of particular significance here.
The marker sometimes includes a phonatory aspect that resembles the “neutral vowel,” but which is more properly identified as an abortive vocal gesture.
The interested reader is referred to Wingate (1966c, 1966d, 1986a, 1986b.)
This description also applies to reading aloud.
Howes’ results are supported by findings like those reported by Beattie and But-terworth (1979), Freedman and Loftus (1971),and Saporta (1955).
Meaning genetic transmission. The “social heredity” hypothesis (Gray, 1940), which expresses the explanatory notions of Wendell Johnson, purports to explain the inheritance of stuttering as a psychological phenomenon. Although still accepted by certain sources as credible (Bloodstein, 1981; Taylor, 1976), the “social heredity” account is thoroughly untenable (see Wingate, 1986c).
Blewett (1954), Thurstone, Thurstone, and Strandskov (1955), and Vandenberg (1962, 1964).
Both Milner and Benton found certain other, nonlanguage related, differences associated with lesions of the right hemisphere. They are not directly pertinent to the present discussion.
As noted earlier, to speak accurately of stuttering in regard to specific phones would require denoting the vowel as the “difficult” phone, rather than the immediately preceding consonant.
This assumption is not limited to the field of stuttering.
Generally speaking, I maintain a serious reservation about the use of the term “automatic” in reference to any aspect of speech production in the normal speaker. The word may be used properly to refer to certain aphasie utterances and to ictal utterances. However, especially at the present state of knowledge I believe that assumptions about “automaticity” in normal speech processes are unwarranted. A special term is needed to refer to certain highly routinized verbal acts that seem to occur indepedent of intent.
Keep in mind that pause is not the only kind of “hesitation phenomena” to be found more frequently in spontaneous speech than in oral reading. The recurring reference to pause in this discussion simply reflects the fact that attention to other hesitation phenomena was not included in most of these studies.
See, for instance Bloodstein (1949), and the “facts” references cited earlier.
One may find an occasional report of a stutterer who stutters more when reading aloud, in which case the inversion of the general rule seems due to marked pressures felt by the individual. Such cases are evidently few in number.
The latter is tantamount to a temporary strabismus. It is of interest here that the infamous Dieffenbach surgery for stuttering, done in the middle of the 19th century (see Wingate, 1976, p. 285), was based indirectly on his observation of some concurrence between stuttering and strabismus.
This publication of the Speech Foundation of America, now in its fourth edition, is prepared by professionals in the field who are considered to be leading clinicians.
Travis (1933a) credited M.W. Sachs and Orton with having developed this position.
Some recent good reviews and summaries of the topic are presented in: Beaton (1985); Bryden (1982); Corballis (1983); Geschwind and Galaburda (1984).
Or, also, indicate indifference or only superficial interest. 21 Bogen (1969) notes that this observation was recorded as early as 1745. 22This account does not ignore the importance of timing.
Stimulation at both levels has produced speech arrest.
Note that here, as in the aphasia literature generally, “fluency” is used to mean word retrieval; in essence, the inverse of anomia.
Cases in which facial and vocal activity are absent or markedly diminished although general motor activity is relatively unaffected.
Extraneous movements of the facial area are identified as speech-related features and certain ancillary features.
The categorical nature of speech segments is discussed in pertinent literature on categorical perception. See, for instance, Blumstein (1987, pp. 260-264; Foss and Hakes, (1978, pp. 79-88). Of particular relevance to the ensuing discussion are findings like those reported by Fry, Abramson, Eimas, and Liberman (1962) and Liberman, Harris, Kinney, and Lane (1961) that consonants are identified more categorically while vowels are identified on a more graded basis.
Research reported by MacNeilage and Scholes (1964) is especially pertinent to this description: they found that electrical activity of tongue muscle during vowel articulation shows “a complex pattern of finely graded changes.” (See also Perkell (1969), and previous discussion, chapter 6.)
Studdert-Kennedy quotes Sweet as having made the same point in his Handbook of Phonetics (1877).
There are several ways to document this reality. The most impressive comes from the research on speech errors: errors involve either consonants or vowels, but not interchanges between the two classes.
In the temporal compression of infant development, two or three months is, maturationally, a very long time.
Wherein prosodie pattern changes the meaning of even brief utterances.
Many sources of evidence presumptive of organic etiology in stuttering were not included in the material considered in this book.
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© 1988 Marcel E. Wingate
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Wingate, M.E. (1988). Outlines of a Language Dysfunction. In: The Structure of Stuttering. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-9664-6_9
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