ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses phonological encoding from an aphasiological perspective. It is argued that deficits of phonological encoding provide insight into the regular workings of the process. Such a deficit is the syndrome of conduction aphasia, which is claimed to consist of two types, one a deficit in the building of the phonological plan, at the level of individual segments, the other a verbal working memory deficit in the maintenance of this plan. Particular attention is paid to the input to phonological encoding, as well as to the time course of the process. Aphasic speech data indicate that the input consists of metrical frames, hierarchically organized as syllables, and autonomous segments or bundles of phonological features. These segments appear to be mapped onto the frames in a parallel fashion, as opposed to sequentially from left to right, while serial (length) effects may be generated by the maintenance process, which is a function of verbal working memory.
In this chapter, we present a discussion of aphasiological work that has related aphasic symptoms to deficient phonological encoding. In particular, we focus on the syndrome of conduction aphasia, in which problems with sequential ordering of speech sounds have been widely noted. We argue that aphasic deficits at different levels of processing allow insight into the amount and type of phonological structure present at those specific levels. We also argue that conduction aphasia can either be related to a deficit in the building of the phonological speech plan or to a deficit in its maintenance (in working memory). Both types may provide insight into the nature of the phonological encoding process.
