Broca or Broca's aphasia?

Susan Bresee sbresee at umd.edu
Thu Aug 30 10:58:03 UTC 2012


Dr. Gleason,
Your comments and response on this site are a joyful confirmation of the
value of open online exchanges such as this one. Thank you all for sharing
your knowledge, experiences, and insight.
Susan

On Wed, Aug 29, 2012 at 5:58 PM, Jean Berko Gleason <gleason at bu.edu> wrote:

>
>  Hi Jeri   Just to agree with everyone, I've always said/written Broca's
> aphasia, Wernicke's aphasia, etc. and never without the possessive.  Since
> everyone agrees, I don't see the point of putting (Broca aphasia) in parens
> or anywhere else.  Americans DO use the possessive form.    I also agree
> that Down syndrome (and not Down's) is the term.  No one is probably going
> to go down the list you include and make definitive statements about each
> term, so my suggestion is to find a publication online that we all read and
> use and find editorially acceptable and use their editorial criteria.  The
> medical dictionary you refer to is apparently at odds with the community
> that writes about these conditions.  So it is not acceptable.
>
> When I edit general things, I keep a tab open for the New York Times, for
> instance, and when in doubt I do a search on the term in the Times.  I
> tried this for Broca's aphasia, and found that every Times article (many
> of them) used the possessive.  The term 'Broca aphasia' turned up in
> various sidebar ads from people offering treatment.   If you don't feel the
> Times is a sufficient authority, you might be able to do something similar
> with a Journal like Brain and Language, though there may not be a really
> simple way to search through all issues as there is with the Times.  But
> the Times and the journals in our field have already established
> conventions on the use of these terms, so it should be reasonable to stick
> with authority.
>
> My favorite 'correction' from a copy editor occurred many years ago.  I
> had written an article on child language, and the editor changed every
> instance of the term to 'childish language', and attached snarky comments
> to me about my failure to understand English grammar.
>
> Jean
>
>
>
> Jean Berko Gleason
> Professor Emerita
> Department of Psychology
> Boston University
>
> On 8/29/2012 10:58 AM, Jeri Jaeger wrote:
>
> Hi Everyone,
>
> I'm helping John Laver (Edinburgh) out with his massive encyclopedic dictionary of language, as the editor for the Neurolinguistics section.  John believes that there is a difference between what Americans call various aphasias, syndromes, etc. compared to the UK.   So his entries read:   Broca (UK Broca's) aphasia, for example, indicating that Americans use the non-possessive form.  He is using the Stedman's Dictonary, which is indeed published in Philadelphia as his source; however, this is a medical dictionary designed (as I understand it) for practicing physicians.  Below I've listed all the cases in the dictionary in the Neuro section as well as some from the Pathology section.  While I've definitely heard people say 'Down Syndrome' and 'Lou Gehrig Disease', I've NEVER heard anyone say Broca Aphasia or Broca Area or Wernicke Aphasia, etc.  Possibly there is a distinction in American usage between aphasic syndromes and other pathological syndromes.  I would be very grate!
>  ful for
> your input on this.  I'm thinking about suggesting that he use the possessive forms for the main entries, but put the non-possessive forms in parentheses afterwards, without indicating this as a regional difference, as in:    Broca's aphasia (or Broca aphasia).  But perhaps this would not be appropriate for things like Friedreich ataxia, for example.  Please let me know what you think.
>
> Hope all is well with all of you,
> and I'm looking forward to hearing from you.
> Best wishes,
> Jeri Jaeger
>
> Aran-Duchenne disease
> Bell palsy
> Broca aphasia
> Broca area
> Bastian aphasia
> Erb disease
> Erb palsy
> Erb-Duchenne paralysis
> Friedreich ataxia
> Friedreich disease
> Frohlich syndrome
> Gerstmann syndrome
> Kussmaul aphasia
> Landau-Kleffner syndrome
> Parkinson disease
> Pick-Wernicke aphasia
> Pick disease
> Potzel syndrome
> Ribot's law/rule  (he only has this in the posessive)
> Wallenburg syndrome
> Wernicke aphasia
> Wernicke area
>
>
>
> Professor, Dept. of Linguistics
> 618 Baldy Hall
> University at Buffalo, NY 14261
>
> College of Arts & Sciences, Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education &
> Cognizant Dean for the Humanities and Area Studies
> 825 Clemens Hall
> University at Buffalo, NY 14260
> jjaeger at buffalo.edu(716) 645-0123
>
>
>
>
>
>  --
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
> "Info-CHILDES" group.
> To post to this group, send email to info-childes at googlegroups.com.
> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
> info-childes+unsubscribe at googlegroups.com.
> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
>
>
>



-- 

Teaching Learning Policy and Leadership
University of Maryland
College Park, MD

-- 
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Info-CHILDES" group.
To post to this group, send email to info-childes at googlegroups.com.
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to info-childes+unsubscribe at googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/info-childes/attachments/20120830/d5bffba1/attachment.htm>


More information about the Info-childes mailing list