title: Polyglot aphasics and language mixing: a comment on Perecman (1984).
abstract: Perecman (1984) Brain and Language, 23, 43-63, proposes that language mixing (and especially utterance level mixing) in polyglot aphasics reflects a linguistic deficit and that spontaneous translation indicates a prelinguistic processing deficit. It is argued in this comment that both language mixing (including utterance-level mixing) and spontaneous translation are also found in normal polyglots, and that they may not therefore always be reflecting language deficit in aphasics. Only a good assessment of the patient's language and speech before and after the injury will determine if these behaviors do indeed reflect deficits.
mesh_terms: D001037:Aphasia / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D008037:Linguistics; D013060:Speech