Syllabic constraints in the phonological errors of an aphasic patient.

The Sonority Dispersion Principle (Clements, 1990) states that the sharper the rise in sonority between the beginning of the syllable and the nucleus, the better the syllable. So far evidence in favour of this principle has been derived mainly from the distributional properties of syllable types and, to a lesser extent, from language acquisition. The case of DB, presented in this study, provides strong evidence that the Sonority Dispersion Principle also applies to an explanation of aphasic errors and revives Jakobson's idea that the same principles of complexity can explain the distribution of syllables, language acquisition, and language loss (Jakobson, 1941, 1968). Although some evidence that sonority constraints aphasic errors has been presented before, this is the first study reporting systematic effects of sonority-based complexity in aphasia.