Dictionary of terms, over the years

The following list of terms and definitions are from texts beginning with Potter in 1892 and ending with Singh and Kent in 2000. The aim of this dictionary is to show how terminology and concepts used in texts geared to speech-language pathologists have shifted over the years. The entries are listed in chronological order, from old to new. Some of the terms in the list are no longer in use in the United States. The references following the terms and definitions give the sources for the dictionary items.

Agnosia.
· Disturbance of recognition of objects, persons, or events in one's environment so that they are not readily compared with previously observed objects, persons, or events. (auditory agnosia = see dysacusis below) (Berry, 1969, p. 427).
· Originally Sigmund Freud used the term agnosia to mean loss of perception. It is now applied to disorders whereby the patient cannot interpret sensory information correctly even though the sense organs and the nerves leading to the brain are operating normally. Thus in auditory agnosia the patient can hear but he cannot interpret sounds (Gregory, 1987, p. 18).
· Impairment of sensory recognition of familiar items caused by damage to sensory association areas or association pathways of the brain; often named to denote the sensory system involved; for example, visual agnosia, auditory agnosia (Singh & Kent, 2000, p.6).
· Loss of the ability to interpret sensory stimuli, such as sounds or visual images (Danesi, 2000, p. 11).
Agrammatism.
· Ungrammatical speech which may consist of inability to utter words in their correct sequence, misuse of infinitives, omission of conjunction, or lack of grammatical inflections. Caused by brain lesions (Ogilvie, 1942, p. 220).
Agraphia.
· Loss or impairment of the function of language arising from morbid conditions of the higher centers governing written language (Potter, 1882, p. 31).
· The loss of the ability to write, which may or may not be connected with alexia, the loss of the ability to comprehend the written or printed word. It is thought to be caused by a liesion in the cerebral cortex or by more generalized cerebral dysfunction (Gregory, 1987, p. 39).
· Loss of writing ability in the absence of abnormality of a limb and usually associated with damage to brain language centers. Characterized by spelling errors, reversals, impaired word order, and other manifestations of faulty written language use, such as alexia and aphasia. Sometimes called dysgraphia (Singh & Kent, 2000, p. 6)
· Loss of the ability to write (Danesi, 2000, p. 11).
Alalia:
· Disorders of language (Potter, 1882).
· See alogia, below (Travis, 1931).
· Mutism, one type of dyslalia or speech disorder (Stinchfield, 1933).
· Literally, without speech. A general term for speech disorders characterized by complete disability to articulate meaningful speech (Berry, 1969, p. 417).
Alexia (word-blindness).
· The inability to read the printed or written word, usually caused by damage to the cerebral hemisphere (Gregory, 1987, p. 19).
· Impairment in reading the printed word; may be acquired or developmental. Acquired alexia is a reading impairment that accompanies or is a part of aphasia. Frequently called dyslexia and also known as word or text blindness or visual aphasia (Singh & Kent, 2000, p. 7).
Alogia.
· Inability to speak due to some psychical defect. Synonym: alalia (Travis, 1931, p. xxiii).
· Lack of ability to articulate (Travis, 1931, p. xxiii).
· Inability to speak; lack of ideas. Cause may be defective intelligence, or a lesion in the nervous system (Ogilvie, 1942, p. 220).
Aphasia.
· Loss or impairment of the function of language arising from morbid conditions of the higher centers governing spoken language (Potter, 1882, p. 31)
· A mental disorder consisting essentially of an inability to use articulated speech and to comprehend spoken words (Travis, 1931, p. xxiv).
· 1. Power of speech partially or completely lost; expression of language impaired. 2. Inability to use articulate speech and to comprehend spoken word. 3. Defect of loss of power of expression and comprehending spoken or written language. In all cases, apparatus of sound formation and external speech organs and organs of intellect intact. Caused by lesion of the brain (Ogilvie, 1942, p. 220).
· (adult) General language deficit that crosses all language modalities (perception, speaking, reading, and writing) and may or may not be complicated by such other sequalae of brain damage as impaired auditory, visual and senaorimotor processes not associated with verbal disturbance (Berry, 1969, p. 428).
· Loss or impairment of language ability because of brain damage. Aphasic syndromes vary, depending on the site of the damage (Gleason, 1997, p. 473).
· Impairment in the comprehension and production of language symbol systems that results from fairly localized damage to the brain, especially in right-handed persons. Usually accompanies focal areas of damage to the left cerebral hemisphere. Affects reading, writing, speaking, understanding, gestures, and other symbol systems used in communication (Singh & Kent, 2000, p. 14).
· Total or partial loss of the power to use or understand words, phrases or sentences, usually caused by disease or injury to one of the brain's language centers (Danesi, 2000, p. 19).
Aphemia.
· Partial or complete loss of articulate speech (varying degrees of inability to find words for expression); defective articulation; disturbance of writing and genture language; perseveration of understanding and memory of words; intelligence intact. Caused by a disturbance of the motor center of speech (Ogilvie, 1942, p. 222).
· An extreme temporary form of dysphemia characterized by complete dumbness. The organs concerned with articulatin and with vocalization and their innervation remain intact, and there is no visible lesion in any part of the nervsous system. Aphemia is a symptom of certain psychoneuroses, more especially of hysteria (Robbins, 1963, p. 23)
· Obsolete term for aphasia (Singh & Kent, 2000, p. 15).
Aphonia.
· Voicelessness (Travis, 1931, p.xxiv).
· 1. Loss of voice ranging from a degree of hoarseness to complete voicelessness. No approximation or tension of the vocal cords. 2. Voicelessness. Caused by paralysis of vocal cords, benign or malignant growth on the vocal cords, some injury or disease of the larynx, or hysteria (Ogilvie, 1942, p. 223)
· The absence of vocal fold vibration; this term commonly describes people who have "lost their voice" after vocal fold injury. In most cases, such patients have very poor vibration, rather than no vibration; and they typically have a harsh, nearly whispered voice (Singh & Kent, 2000, p. 15).
Apperception.
· Conscious experience (Hergenhahn, 2001, p. 179).
Apperceptive mass.
· According to Herbart, the cluster of interrelated ideas of which we are conscious at any given moment (Hergenhahn, 2001, p. 179).
Apraxia.
· The loss of ability to perform skilled movements with any part of the body in the absence of any actual paralysis in this part (Travis, 1931, p. xxiv).
· Sensorimotor disorder characterized by confused perception of the sequential pattern of movements required for the act, or by inability to carry out the movement patterns although perception of the sequence is adequate (synonym: ideokinetic apraxia). (Berry, 1969, p. 428).
· The inability to make purposeful skilled movements (Gregory, 1987, p. 34).
· Total or partial loss of the ability to carry out coordinated movements or to manipulate objects, caused by an impairment of a motor or sensory nature (Danesi, 2000, p. 20).
Articulation.
· The method by which voice-sounds are converted into the elements of speech (Potter, 1882, p. 22).
· The enunciation of words and sentences (Travis, 1931, p. xxiv).
· Moving and positioning of the vocal organs in order to produce speech sounds (Danesi, 2000, p. 27).
Associationism.
· The belief that the laws of association provide the fundamental principles by which all mental phenomena can be explained (Hergenhahn, 2001, p. 153).
Ataxia.
· Lack of power to coordinate properly (Travis, 1931, p. xxiv).
· Marked loss of motor coordination and appearance of intention tremor caused by lesions of cortex, brain stem, or cerebellum (Berry, 1969, p. 428).
Auditory discrimination.
· Act of meaningfully interpreting (or discriminating) sounds and sound sequences employed in oral communication (synonym: auditory perception) (Berry, 1969, p. 443).
· The process of hearing accurately the individual sounds of language-for instance, the ability to hear the difference between sat and fat (Gleason, 1997, p. 474).
Autism.
· Child psychosis reflected in inability to identify or communicate with others and with the environment; behavior is frequently bizarre, compulsive, repetitive and nonpurposive (Berry, 1969. 429).
· A childhood disorder, probably neurological in origin, characterized by stereotypic behavior, and a broad range of social, communicative and intellectual deficiencies (Gleason, 1997, p. 474).
· A developmental disorder affecting communication and social skills; characteristics may include delayed language, insistence on preservation of sameness and stereotypies (Singh & Kent, 2000, p. 23).
Aversion therapy.
· Applying, or showing, situations of objects which frighten, or disturb, with gradually increasing nearness, or frequency of presentation, as a way of alleviating phobias by gradually increasing familiarity with the frightening object or situation.
bb. One who believes generally that the principles of learning can be used to explain most behavior, and that observable events, rather than mental activity are the proper objects of study (Gleason, 1997, p. 474).

Behaviorism.
· The central tenet of behaviorism is that thoughts, feelings, and intentions, mental processes all, do not determine what we do. Our behavior is the product of our conditioning. We are biological machines and do not consciously act; rather we react to stimuli (Gregory, 1987, p. 71).
· A philosophical perspective on learning and behavior that emphasizes observable behaviors and their effects (Singh & Kent, 2000, p. 31).
· The school of psychology, founded by Watson, that insisted that behavior be psychology's subject matter and that psychology's goal be the prediction and control of behavior [Hergenhahn, 2001, p. 369].
Biological determinism.
· The type of determinism that stresses the biochemical, genetic, pphysiological, or anatomical causes of behavior (Hergenhahn, 2001 p. 21) (see psychobiology below).
Bottom-up processing.
· A term taken from artificial intelligence to depict the direction of processing. In bottom-up models, reading is conceptualized as dependent on accurate decoding of the letter strings that make up words (Gleason, 1997, p. 474).
· Information processing that is data driven; properties of the data are primary determinants of higher level representations and constructions (Singh & Kent, 2000, p. 35)
Broca's aphasia. (Broca's area).
· Area of the left hemisphere in the frontal region. Damage to this area results in aphasia characterized by difficulty in producing speech (Gleason, 1997, p. 474).
· Aphasia characterized by loss of fluency and reduced paucity of vocabulary, usually arising from lesion in Brodmann areas 44 and 45 of the dominant cerebral hemisphere (Broca's area); characterized by good language comprehension, but poor speaking ability; patients often have anomia (Singh & Kent, 2000, p. 36).

Catalogia.
· A condition in which the individual repeats words and sentences without reference to their meaning (Travis, 1931, p. xxiv) (see echolalia).
Cerebral dominance.
· The concept that certain higher level brain functions, such as language, music, art, or logical thought are more localized in one hemisphere of the brain than the other. For speech, the left cerebral hemisphere is typically dominant (Singh & Kent, 2000, p. 43).
· Neuroscientific theory positing that the left hemisphere of the brain is the dominant one controlling the higher mental functions, such as language and reasoning. This idea came to be widely held late in the 19th century and in the first half of the 20th (Danesi, 200, p. 46).
Cluttering. (also called blocking or paraphrasia praeceps).
· Symptoms: extremely rapid speech tempo, a more or less undecided articulation, occasional repetition of syllables, swallowing of words, syllables, sounds and prolepsis as well as post positions (Froeschels, 1933, p. 213).
· A speech-language disorder characterized by rapid speech rate, irregular speech rate, or both; a fluency disorder related to, but different from, stuttering; may coexist with stuttering. Also defined as a fluency disorder with rapid rate, indistinct articulation, and impaired language formulation, possibly suggesting poor organization of thought with reduced or absent awareness or concern about the problems. Certain elements of treatment are common to stuttering and cluttering (Singh & Kent, 2000, p. 47).
Communicative competence.
· Linguistic competence plus knowledge of the social rules for language use. The speaker has phonological, morphological, syntactic, and semantic knowledge, and the knowledge of pragmatics necessary to use language in its social context (Gleason, 1997, p. 475).
· The ability of speakers to adjust their messages to effectively influence their listeners. Also, proficient use of a language in everyday conversations. This term accentuates being understood rather than being "correct" in using language rules (Singh & Kent, 2000, p. 51).
Communicative functions.
· The purposes for which language is used; for instance, even infants use language to express rejection, requests, and comments (Gleason, 1997, p. 475).
· Intentions exhibited by infants and toddlers as classified by M. A. K. Halliday (Singh & Kent, 2000, p. 51).
Conduction aphasia.
· An aphasic syndrome characterized by inability to repeat, typically resulting from damage to the arcuate fasciculus (Gleason, 1997, p. 476).
· Aphasia often attributed to lesion of the arcuate fasciculus; characterized by intact auditory comprehension, but poor repetition of verbal materials (Singh & Kent, 2000, p. 52).

Decoding.
· In learning to read, the deciphering of the sounds and meanings of letters, combinations of letters, whole words, and sentences of text; conversion into intelligible form; recognizing and interpreting (Singh & Kent, 2000, p. 62).
· The process of deciphering a sign or text in terms of a specific code (Danesi, 2000, p. 73).
Deep structure.
· A component within Chomsky's government-binding theory that contains the sentence structure rules and a language user's lexicon (Singh & Kent, 2000, p. 62).
· Noam Chomksy's notion that sentences have an underlying level on which their meaning can be interpreted (Danesi, 2000, p. 73).
Developmental apraxia.
· A child's lack of ability to plan or sequence the motor movements of speech and resulting in the impaired production of speech sounds; not attributable to muscle weakness or muscular neurological impairment; sometimes called developmental verbal apraxia (Singh & Kent, 2000, p. 65).
Determinism.
· The belief that everything that occurs does so because of known or knowable causes, and that if these causes were known in advance, and event could be predicted with complete accuracy. Also, if the causes of an event were known, the event could be prevented by preventing its causes. Thus, the knowledge of an event's causes allows the prediction and control of the event (Hergenhahn, 2001, p. 21).
Developmental dysphasia.
· Congenital language disability in the absence of obvious cognitive, perceptual or neurological deficits. A more current term is specific language impairment (Gleason, 1997, p. 477).
Diagnosis.
· The determination of the nature of an organic or functional abnormality (Travis, 1931, p. xxvi).
·Scientific identification of cause or reason for injury, impairment, or disease based on patient signs and symptoms, laboratory analysis and other tests, and a health history (Singh & Kent, 2000, p. 66).
Dys-
· Prefix meaning bad, painful, with difficulty (Singh & Kent, 2000, p. 69
Dysacusis.
· Impairment of auditory perception of speech resulting not from a loss of acuity, but from dysfunction of choclea and/or auditory circuits of CNS. Sometimes called auditory agnosia (Berry, 1969, p. 433).
Dysarthria.
· Defects of articulation due to lesions of the nervous system (Stinchfield, 1933, p. 24).
· Difficulty of articulation: labored hesitant, Jerky speech. Caused by a lesion in the nervous system (Ogilvie, 1942, p.227).
· Innervation disturbances of articulation due to trauma, inflammation, degeneration, or arrested development of the brain or to peripheral nerve lesions (Robbins, 1963, p. 41)
· A neurogenic speech disorder that results in weakness, slowness, or incoordination of the muscles of respiration, phonation, articulation, and resonation (Singh & Kent, 2000, p. 69).
Dyslalia.
· Stuttering, difficult interrupted speech (Potter, 1882).
· Defect of articulation in certain consonant or vowel sounds; slurring and indistinctness in speech. Caused by defects of motor nerves of articulatory organs or by ataxia (Ogilvie, 1942, p. 227).
· Defective articulation without demonstrable lesions in the nervous system and with or without abnormality in the peripheral speech mechanism (Travis, 1931, p. xxvi).
· Functional and organic defects of articulation, more commonly called lisping (Stinchfield, 1933, p. 25).
· Stammering-the absence or defective pronunciation of single sounds, or the substitution of one sound for another (Froeschels, 1933, p. 123).
· Defective articulation of speech (Berry, 1969, p. 433).
· Old term for articulation disorder (Singh & Kent, 2000, p. 69).
Dyslexia.
· Impairment of the ability to read silently or aloud in the absence of aphasia and independent of any speech defect (Robbins, 1963, p. 42).
· Neurological disorder characterized by visuomotor disturbances in reading (Berry, 1969, p. 433).
· The term 'specific developmental dyslexia' is frequently used in neurological, psychological, and educational literature to describe a severe disability which reveals itself initially in difficulty in learning to read, and subsequently by erratic spelling and deficits which affect written as opposed to spoken language (Gregory, 1987, p. 205).
· Any one of a number of conditions that lead to a specific impairment in learning to read. Dyslexias are typically linguistic processing problems, rather than difficulties with perception (Gleason, 1997, p. 477).
· From the Greek for "difficulty with words or language," dyslexia is a disorder manifested by difficulty in learning to read despite adequate intelligence and sociocultural opportunity; may include other language processing problems (Singh & Kent, 2000, 69).
Dyslogia.
· Difficulty in the expression of ideas by speech due to psychoses (Stinchfield, 1933, p. 25, Travis, 1931, p. xxvi).
· 1. Difficulty in expressing ideas. 2. Illogical or delusional speech. Caused by mental disorders (Ogilvie, 1942, p. 227).
· Defective enunciation and language, due to permanently arrested mental development (Robbins, 1963, p. 42.)
Dysphagia.
· Marked hoarseness; difficulty in swallowing. Caused by pulmonary tuberculosis of a lesion in the larynx (Ogilvie, 1942, p. 227).
· Difficulty in swallowing, often in conjunction with esophageal obstructive or motor disorders (Singh & Kent, 2000, p. 70).
Dysphasia.
· Impairment of language, due to weakened mental imagery, through disease, shock or injury (includes aphasias) (Stinchfield, 1933, p. 26).
· 1. Disturbance of syntax and sentence arrangement. Caused by brain injury or disease. 2. Stuttering and stammering (Ogilvie, 1942, p. 227).
· A grammatical deficit characterized by difficulty in using grammatical morphemes, such as the forms of the past tense. Some researchers have claimed that this disability is genetically determined (Gleason, 1997, p. 478).
Dysphemia.
· Variable disorders of speech due to psychoneuroses (includes stuttering) (Stinchfield, 1933, p. 27; Travis, 1931, p. xxvi).
Dysphonia.
· Defects of voice. This includes all disorders of phonation due to organic or functional disorders of vocal cords, or defective respiration (Stinchfield, 1933, p. 27)
· Any defect of phonation (Berry, 1969, p. 433).
· Any impairment of voice or phonation (Singh & Kent, 2000, p. 70).
Dysrhythmia.
· Abnormality of the rhythm of speech (Travis, 1931, p. xxvi).
· Defects of rhythm (other than stuttering). (Stinchfield, 1933, p. 29).

Echolalia.
· Child merely echoes words or phrases with no understanding of their meaning" (Stinchfield, 1920, p. 14).
· The meaningless repetition by the individual of words addressed to him. Synonym: echophrasia (Travis, 1931, p. xxvi).
· Repetition of all or part of another's utterance at one's turn in a conversation; common in children with autism (Gleason, 1997, p. 477).
· The meaningless repetition (usually unintended) of words or phrases (parroted speech) made by others (Singh & Kent, 2000, p. 73).
· Immediate or delayed, whole or partial repetition of previous utterances of others with the same intonational pattern (Owens, 1999, p. 486).
Egocentric speech or language.
· Egocentric language. Early state in child's linguistic development characterized by the initial inability to decenter, to shift the given cognitive or mental perspective in social and other relationships in which language plays a part (Berry, 1969, p. 437).
· Egocentric speech. Speech not adapted to listener needs, e.g., using complex language to young children, or using color terms to direct the action of a blindfolded (or blind) listener (Gleason, 1997, p. 477).
Empiricism.
· The belief that the basis of all knowledge is experience (especially sensory experience(Hergenhahn, 2001, p.22 & p. 153).
Encoding.
· Process of constructing, selecting, or composing a sign or text in terms of a specific code (Danesi, 2000, p. 86).
Ethnography.
· Study and systematic recording of human cultures, with research that is qualitative rather than quantitative (e.g., engages in fieldwork, interviews, and observation), with communicative behaviors being a vital aspect of such studies (Singh & Kent, 2000, p. 78).
· Type of research conducted by living in a community and observing what goes on (Danesi, 2000, p. 89).
Etiology.
· The study of theory of the causation of diseases and abnormalitites (Travis, 1931, p. xxvii).
· Science and study of all factors leading to a disease/disorder (Singh & Kent, 2000, p. 78).

Feedback.
· (1) The aspect of speech whereby one responds tactile-kinesthetically and auditorially to his own speech. (2) Perceptual reaction of a person to his own response, a process by which direct responses are controlled and corrected (Berry, 1969, p. 434).
· A signal that is returned from the periphery to a central controller; often used to increase stability in a system or a communication exchange (Singh & Kent, 2000, p. 82).
· In information theory, the process of detecting signals or cues issuing from the receiver of a message so that the performance or control of the communication system can be maintained or improved (Danesi, 2000, p. 92).
Field theory.
That branch of physics that studies how energy distributes itself within physical systems. In some systems (such as the solar system), energy can distribute itself freely. In other systems (such as an electrical circuit) energy must pass through wires, condensers, reisitors, and so forth. In either type of system, however, energy will always distribute itself int the simplest, most symmetrical way possible under the circumstances. According to the Gestaltists, the brain is a physical system whose activity could be understood in terms of field theory (Hergenhahn, 2001, p. 428).
Figure-ground relationship.
· The most basic type of perception, consisting of the division of the perceptual field into a figure (that which is attended to) and a ground, which provides the background for the figure (Hergenhahn, 2001, p. 428).
Functional analysis.
· Skinner's approach to research that involves studying the systematic relationship between behavioral and environmental events. Such study focuses on the relationship between reinforcement contingencies and response rate or response probability [Hergenhahn, 2001, p. 400].

Generative grammar.
· Attempt to define rules that can generate an nlimited number of acceptable sentences in a language; linked to transformational grammar, which tries to identify rules governing relations among sentence aspects (Singh & Kent, 2000, p. 95).
· Analysis of language initiated in 1957 by Noam Chomsky in his book Syntactic Structures, by which sentences are viewed as hierarchically organized structures generated by rules that are said to make up the native speaker's linguistic competence (Danesi, 2000, p. 99).
Global aphasia.
· Aphasia resulting from extensive brain damage; the patient has poor comprehensiuon and little voluntary language (Gleason, 1997, p. 478).
· The most severe of aphasias; suggestive of severe impairment in comprehension and use of language; a common occurrence in the beginning hours and days of injury but not necessarily indicative of long-term impairment (Singh & Kent, 2000, p. 97).

Idealists.
· Those who believe that ultimate reality consists of ideas or perceptions and is therefore not physical (Hergenhahn, 2001, p. 22).
Idioglossia
· Invented language characteristic of individuals of low mentality. Synonym: idiolalia (Travis, 1931, p. xxviii).
· Distortion of sound so that the patient appears to speak his own invented language; substitution of unusual and inaccurate sounds for vowels and consonants; mutilation, substitution, and dropping of consonants and normal vowels; speech unintelligibel except to patient's own family. Caused by mental retardation or developmental retardation somewhere in the audito-motor area (Ogilvie, 1942, p. 231).
Idiopathic.
· Cause unknown (Singh & Kent, 2000, p. 112).
Idiopathic language retardation.
· Delay in development of language for which no physiological cause is known (Berry, 1969, p. 436).
Information processing psychology. The approach to studying cognition that follows in the tradition of faculty psychology and methodological (mediational) behaviorism and typically employs the computer as a model for human information processing (Hergenhahn, 2001, p. 549).

Lal-, lala-, -lalia, -lalo.
· Prefixes and suffixes pertaining to speech, babbling, or speech disorder (Singh & Kent, 2000, p. 126).
Lalling, lallation.
· Reiteration of a sound or syllable observed particularly in infants and idiots (Travis, 1931, p. xxix).
· 1. A babbling, infantile form of speech. 2. substitution of one sound for another; caused by idiocy or imbecility, or by a persistence of childish habits. 3. A stage in acquiring speech (Ogilvie, 1942,p. 231).
Lalopathy.
· Any form of speech disorder (Travis, 1931, p. xxix).

Mental impairment.
· A state of arrested or incomplete development of mind which includes significant impairment of intelligence and social functioning and is associated with abnormally aggressive or seriously irresponsible conduct (Gregroy, 1987, p. 755).
Mental retardation.
· A cognitive deficit of varying etiology. Individuals with mental retardation score two or more standard deviations below the mean on IQ tests, with measurable IQs of 70 or less (Gleason, 1997, p. 480).
· Intellectual function below normal range (Singh & Kent, 2000, p. 145).

Neobehaviorism.
· Agreed with older forms of behaviorism that overt behavior should be psychology's subject matter but disagreed that theoretical speculation concerning abstract entities much be avoided. Such speculation was accepted provided that the theoretical terms employed are operationally defined and led to testable predictions about overt behavior (Hergenhahn, 2001, p. 400).
Neologism.
· Introduction of new words characteristic of the insane (Travis, 1931, p. xxx).
· New,made-up words, often not words in the language, as wheen a Wernicke's aphasia patient refers to an ashtray as a "fremser" (Gleason, 1997, p. 482).
· Novel word coined by an individual, but lacking shared meaning a with listener (Singh & Kent, 2000, p. 156).
Nominal aphasia.
· Inability to find the word or expression desired (Travis, 1931, p. xxx).

Organismic.
· Pertaining to the correlation of activities of the body and preservation of its unity (Travis, 1931, p. xxxi).

Paralalia:
· A failure in the action of certain muscles of articulation, due to some mechanical or central obstacle, or to defects in the muscles themselves, or to disturbed transmission of nervous impulses (Potter, 1882, p. 33).
· 1. Any speech disturbance. 2. Substitution of one sound for another. 3. Marked articulation alteration. 4. Words of one sense are substituted for appropriate words (Ogilvie, 1942, p. 235).
· Morbid alteration in articulation (Travis, 1931, p. xxxi).
Passive mind.
· A mind whose contents are determined by sensory experience. It contains a few mechanistic principles that organize, store, and generalize sensory experiences. The British empiricists and the French sensationalists tended to postulate such a mind (Hergenhahn, 2001, p. 180).
Polylogia.
· Excessive loquacity. Synonym: Logorrhea (Travis, 1931, p. xxxi).
Positivism.
· The contention that science should study onlhy that which can be directly experienced. For Comte, that was publicly observed events or overt behavior. For Mach, it was the sensations of the scientist (Hergenhahn, 2001, p. 154).
Pragmatics.
· Relations of signs to people who use them (Berry, 1969, p. 444).
· The rules for the use of language in social context, and in conversation, or the study of these rules (Gleason, 1997, p. 483).
· Study of speech acts and the contexts in which they are performed, along with the societal-dependent aspects of communicative interaction; exploration of the rules of social interaction such as turn taking and topic maintenance, as well as the accepted contexts for questioning and assigning titles to conversational partners (Singh & Kent, 2000, p. 182).
· The branch of linguistics concerned with how language is used in social situations. The pragmatic study of language deals with who says what to whom in specific situations (Danesi, 2000, p, 182).
Psychobiology.
· The attempt to explain psychological phenomena in terms of their biological foundations (Hergenhahn, 2001, p. 567). (See biological determinism, above.)
Pragmatism.
· A largely American philosophic tradition which stresses the purposive nature of cognition and seeks in practical consequences the key to the meanings of concepts or the correctness of belief (Gregory, 1987, p.631).
· A philosophical movement developed by Charles S. Peirce and William James distinguished by the tenet that the validity of an idea or a proposition lies in its observable practical consequences (Danesi, 2000, p. 182).
Psycholinguistics.
· A branch of linguistics concerned with such topics as language acquisition by children, speech perception, aphasia, and others that involve psychological aspects of language (Danesi, 2000, p. 187).

Rationalism.
· The philosophical belief that knowledge can be attained only by engaging in some type of systematic mental activity (Hergenhahn, 2001, p.23).
· The philosophical position postulating an active mind that transforms sensory information and is capable of understanding abstract principles or concepts not attainable from sensory information alone (Hergenhahn, 2001, p. 180).
Realism.
· The belief that abstract universals (essences) exist and that empirical events are only manifestations of those universals (Hergenhahn, 2001, p. 81).

Scaffold.
· A supportive linguistic/communicative context supplied by mothers and other adults to young children. (Gleason, 1997, p. 484.
· Format, cross reference. In Vygotskyian theory, adults are thought to provide intellectual interaction that serves as a scaffold, or format, that makes it possible for children to develop at a much faster rate than they could without this helpful intervention (Gleason, 1997, p. 478).
· teaching or coaching building on a student's repertoire of knowledge and understanding (Singh & Kent, 2000, p. 202).
Script.
· Refers to a known scheme or structure of knowledge. A story's script, therefore refers to our previous knowledge about the organization, plot, characters, and so on (Gleason, 1997, p. 485).
· Basic sequential notion of familiar events (Owens, 1999, p. 487).
· A presumed mental representation of repeatedly occurring, sequenced events, episodes, or personal experiences; used in teaching advanced language skills including narrative skills; a description of baking cookies, or plan for running a hot dog stand is each a script; there needs to be a beginning and an end; actions people take or roles people play (Singh & Kent, 2000, p. 204).
Script theory.
· A theory which posits that most of human discourse unfolds in a highly formulaic, script-like manner. Formulaic knowledge is thought to be stored in memory in the form of frames that are adapted to fit with present reality (Danesi, 2000, p. 2000).
Semantic aphasia.
· Inability to comprehend the significance of words and phrases as a whole (Travis, 1931, p. xxxii).
Shaping.
· A method of bringing about a desired behavior in an organism by rewarding (reinforcing) successive approximations of the target behavior. According to learning theorists, parents shape children's babbling into words and sentences (Gleason, 1997, p. 486).
· Gradual modification of a behavior, with variations progressively approximating a goal (Singh & Kent, 2000, p. 207).
Social disinhibition.
· Inability to inhibit "acting out" behaviors often seen with traumatic brain injury (Owens, 1999, p. 487).
Spasmophemia.
· Stuttering or stammering (Travis, 1931, p. xxxiii).
Specific language impairment (SLI).
· Delayed or deviant language development in a child who exhibits no cognitive, neurological, or social impairment (Gleason, 1997, p. 486). (See developmental dysphasia).
· Inability to use language to meet the requirements of most communication environments that often has no known cause, with common known causes including hearing impairment, traumatic brain injury, mental retardation, and other neurological or cognitive functioning impairment (Singh & Kent, 2000, p. 214).
Speech.
· The power of combining articulate sounds, so as to convey ideas from one person to another (Potter, 1882, p. 25).
Speech act.
· View that an utterance can replace an actual physical act or desire for some action (Danesi, 2000, p. 216).
Stuttering.
· The difficult, unrhythmical speech characterized by spasmodic contractions of the entire oral mechanism and incoordiantion of the respiratory, laryngeal and oral muscles" (Stinchfield, 1920, p. 15).
· A disturbance in the rhythm of speech; an intermittent blocking; the convulsive repetition of a sound. Synonym: Stammering (Travis, 1931, p. xxxiii).
· Lack of fluency in speech, characterized by prolonged or repeated segments, often produced with extreme tension (Gleason, 1997, p. 486).
· Articulatory or phonatory problem that typically presents in childhood and is characterized by anxiety about the efficacy of spoken communication, along with forced, involuntary hesitation, duplication, and protraction of sounds and syllables (Singh & Kent, 2000, p. 221).
Syntactical aphasia.
· Characterized by faulty grammatical structure of the phrase (Travis, 1931, p. xxxiii).

Text.
· Anything put together with signs to represent or communication something (Danesi, 2000, p. 230).
Top-down processing.
· A term taken from artificial intelligence research to depict the direction of processing. Top-Down (or concept-driven) indicates that processing moves from the level of concepts downward to basic level data. Top-down reading models conceptualize reading as involving the generation and testing of hypotheses (Gleason, 1997, p. 487).
· Information processing that is knowledge, or concept, driven, with higher level constraints guiding data processing, leading to data interpretation consistent with the constraints (Singh & Kent, 2000, p. 240).
Trachyphonia.
· Hoarseness of the voice (Travis, 1931, p. xxxiv).
· Roughness of voice (Ogilvie, 1942, p.243)

Vitalism.
· The belief that life cannot be explained in terms of inanimate processes. For the vitalist, life requires a force that is more than the material objects or inanimate processes in which it manifests itself. For there to be life, there must be a vital force present (Hergenhahn, 2001, p. 23).

Wernicke's aphasia.
· Aphasia characterized by fluent but relatively empty speech, poor comprehension, and neologisms in severe cases (Gleason, 1997, p. 488).
· A type of aphasia named after the Polish neurologist who first described its features (Karl Wernicke, 1848-1905); characterized by fluent flow of jargon, but with little or no comprehension of the spoken word; a severe fluent (sometimes nonsensical) aphasia (Singh & Kent, 2000, p. 260).
Whole language.
· A philosophical and theoretical approach to teaching language in which classroom activities become language-based with meaning-driven reading and writing (Owens, 1999, p. 487).
· Educational theory incorporating teaching strategies and experiences to promote learning of reading, writing, speaking, and listening in natural language situations. Instruction with a whole language approach is informal and transactional, following a psychosociolinguistic approach. Also, an amorphous cluster of ideas about language development in the classroom; generally supports a holistic and integrated teaching of reading, writing, spelling, and oracy (function matters rather than the form of language) (Singh & Kent, 2000, p. 260).
Will.
· According to Wundt, that aspect of humans that allows them to direct their attention anythwer they wish. Because of his emphasis on will, Wundt's version of psychology was called voluntarism (Hergenhahn, 2001, 257).
Word-deafness.
· Inability to understand the meaning of spoken words. Synonym: sensory aphasia (Travis, 1931, p. xxxiv).

Zone of proximal development.
· In Vygotskyian theory, the range of behaviors available to a child in the helpful presence of a guiding adult (Gleason, 1997, p. 489).

References

Berry, M. (1969). Language disorders of children: The bases and diagnoses. NY: Appleton Century Crofts.