ABSTRACT
This chapter develops a framework which accommodates the performance of normal as well as brain-damaged individuals, and it provides a specific model of the bilingual speaker. The framework and model describe a conceptual nervous system and make no claims as to the nature of the underlying neural mechanism. The chapter presents three main ideas. The first is that the impaired performance of aphasic patients, and of bilingual aphasics specifically, reflects a problem in controlling intact language systems. The second idea concerns how control is effected. It is assumed that speech production can be understood in the same way as skilled action in general. The third idea is that regulation involves the use, and hence possible depletion, of the means to increase or to decrease the activation of some internal component. The chapter considers a functional model of bilingual performance based on certain typical case reports.
