ABSTRACT
There are a number of findings which point to an association between linguistic variables and stuttering (Blood et al., 2003). Among the most consistent findings in stuttering research is that stuttering most commonly arises in preschool children, and at a time when language development is rapidly emerging (Kloth, Janssen, Kraaimaat, & Brutten, 1995; Yairi et al., 1996). Stuttering is also associated with reduced language processing ability (although the reverse can also sometimes be true as we see, for example, in Van Riper’s track theory in chapter 7. Stuttering tends to occur where linguistic demands are high, and as it becomes established severity tends to increase with the emergence of more complex linguistic structures. The problem with all this is that these facts can also be explained in motoric terms. Just as the preschool onset is coincident with an increase in linguistic output, so too motor speech is rapidly developing at exactly this time. It is well known that stuttering is associated with reduced motor speech performance, and it is also the case that moments of linguistic complexity tend to correlate highly with motor speech complexity. To compound the problem, we have at a more theoretical level strong differences of opinion amongst experts as to the exact nature of the phonetics/phonology interface; that is, there is fundamental disagreement as to what might be regarded as motor speech and what is phonological. (See Shockey, 2004 for a very clear account on this last point.)
We begin with an overview of some the classic research in this area, before moving on towards more recent interpretations of these findings and examples of theories of stuttering as a linguistic disorder.
