Making Reference with Aphasia

Noun phrases (NPs) are central to effecting linguistic reference, itself fundamental to human interactions. However, little research has examinedtheNPsused by people withthe language disability, aphasia. This Element provides detailed analyses of noun- andpronoun-headed NPs in spoken narratives by twelve people with various aphasia types/severities, exploring NP elaboration and productivity along a continuum of spoken language capability. The Element explains how some observations challenge the rule-based theory that remains influential in aphasiology, while all can be predicted by a usage-based approach. It expands the emerging subfield of Cognitive Aphasiology, with potential implications forboth linguistics andspeech and language therapy.