Chapter 5 - Proper-Name-Specific Aphasias

Abstract

This chapter deals with proper-name-related phenomena in aphasia as they are now known, with a special eye to the theoretical implications of such findings in the more general philosophical and linguistic context. The use of proper names is a necessary part of social communication in many different contexts and cultures. Proper names are important for social reasons as they are a special case in semantics, and also, because by comparing their processing with that of common names, a better view of the name-retrieval process can be obtained. However, proper names often pose a difficult retrieval challenge and, more often than other nouns, make one subject to temporary failures. The chapter suggests that an understanding of the differences in processing between common and proper names allows an unprecedented level of insight about the working of the semantic system in general. The chapter discusses specificity and the importance of proper names. It presents the theoretical background of the subject and the experimental literature and elaborates locating the functional lesions in proper-name anomia and an account of proper-name production. Neuropsychological findings for proper-name-specific aphasias are also discussed in detail. .