Naming Disorders

If all speakers have experienced word-finding difficulties, the word-finding skill is strongly impaired in many language disorders. Naming deficit, or word-finding difficulties, is observed in clinical picture of several language disorders, both acquired and developmental. This trouble can either be predictive of a language disorder or its main feature. Naming deficit is characterized by an involuntary deviation of naming intention from the speaker and/or a difficulty or even impossibility to produce the target word. Naming deficit can be the consequence of a cognitive deficit or a trouble in lexical processing. It is precisely this last point that we have chosen to discuss in the following review. Comparison between word-finding difficulties displayed in aphasia and specific language impairment have lead us to assess whether linguistic levels (phonological, morphological, lexical, semantical) involved in lexical choice and production are reached in the same way. This comparison is of a great interest as we specifically assess the quality of lexical storage and its representations in different populations (i.e. adults in which lexical storage is well developed versus children in which it is still under construction).