ABSTRACT
Dialogue between research on disfluency in normal native speakers and disfluency in language disorders is essential for a more universal discussion of disfluency. This chapter discussed the clinical meaning of “disfluency” in three speech disorders closely related to disfluency, namely stuttering, aphasia, and dysarthria, while comparing it with disfluency in normal native speakers. After discussing the similarities and differences between the two fields, we sought a foothold for dialogue between the two fields. It was thought that distinguishing disfluency as an “Overall judgment of speech” from “individual speech features” that are clues supporting that judgment and focusing on the latter could serve as a starting point for dialogue between research on normal native speakers and research on language disorders. In order to grasp the difference of both from a unified perspective, it is useful to consider the relative difference in the degree of difficulty in daily and social life in the “communicative situation.”
