ABSTRACT
Karl Wernicke (1874) in his groundbreaking monograph on sensory aphasia observed and analysed what he referred to as 'word transpositions' and 'word confusions' (Eggert 1977). By word transpositions, Wernicke meant segmental alterations within some word, and by word confusions he meant full-word substitutions, where the error bore a similarity relation to the target –either phonological or semantic. A. Kussmaul (1877) coined the term 'paraphasia' and applied it to the distinction drawn earlier by Wernicke. Kussmaul called word transpositions 'literal paraphasias', and word confusions, 'verbal paraphasias'. The term 'literal' simply reflected the existing confusion between sounds and letters. We now know that phonemes are involved – not graphemes. The form 'para-' relates to the Greek word meaning 'akin to, associating with, and closely related' and involves substitution. The form 'phasia' comes from the Greek word for speech in the broad sense of the word. Accordingly, Kussmaul's term paraphasia indicated that some linguistic form substituted for another, but where the two forms bore some resemblance to each other.
