The Structure of Stuttering, Softcover reprint of the original 1st ed. 1988 A Psycholinguistic Analysis

This book was not written for any particular audience; generally speaking, I believe its contents should be substantive for anyone who has an interest in the nature of normal language processes and their dysfunction. None­ theless, in writing the book I have had in mind that its contents will be of special interest and value to persons in several disciplines, most notably certain areas of psychology and linguistics, and especially where those in­ terests overlap. It should also be worthwhile to individuals involved in what has come to be known as neurolinguistics, and, of course, to persons having a particular interest in the disorder of stuttering. More has been written about stuttering than all the other speech disor­ ders combined, yet it has remained an enigma. In my view the major source of the continued failure to isolate the nature of stuttering lies in the matter of the questions asked about it. It is not simply that they were not the right questions, but rather that there have actually been so few bona fide questions! Too much of what has been written and said about stutter­ ing has come in the form of declarative statement, which typically reflects some guiding concept and assumption(s). Moreover, most of what has passed as questions has been of a similar nature.

I Background.- 1 Introduction.- “Theories” and “Definitions”.- A Clear and Certain Focus.- A Suspicion of Language Disorder.- 2 The Study of Nonfluency.- Fluency—The Essential Reference.- Investigation of Nonfluency: Origins and Directions.- Nonfluency Findings from the Stuttering-Based Research.- Nonfluency in Normal Speech.- Comparison and Integration of the Two Lines of Research.- Amounts of Disfluencies: Comparative Data.- The Nonfluent Character of Ordinary Speech.- Awareness of Nonfluencies.- Commentary.- II Language Factors: Accumulated Research and a New Analysis.- 3 Language Factors: Early Findings.- The Object of Study.- The Brown Series.- Commentary.- 4 Corroboration, Extension, Complication.- Early Contributions.- Hiatus and Revival.- The Later Research.- Summary and Discussion.- 5 Normal Language: The Necessary Reference.- Structural Features of Ordinary Oral Language.- Language Structures and Stutter Events.- Distillation.- 6 The Fault Line.- Focus on the Syllable.- III Enlarging The Scope: A Comparative Study of Language Dimensions in Stuttering.- 7 Method and Procedure.- Subjects.- Measures Used and Rationale.- Procedure.- 8 Results and Discussion.- Linguistic Dimensions.- Disfluency Dimensions.- IV A New Departure.- 9 Outlines of a Language Dysfunction.- Word-Initial Position.- More on Word-Fluency.- Linguistic Stress.- Propositionality.- The Laterality Connection.- Consonant and Vowel Again.- Synopsis.- References.- Author Index.