The structure of linguistic behaviour : using evidence from aphasiology to corroborate and develop Merleau-Ponty's theory of language and intersubjectivity

The theme of this thesis occurred to me while reading Luria's Basic Problems of Neurolinguistics. Many of Luria's patients manifest forms of a disintegration of speech and of the understanding of speech, which resemble the disintegration of movement in space and perception of space of Goldstein's patient, Schneider, the case Merleau-Ponty described in so many of his arguments, particularly those in the chapter of the Phenomenology of Perception entitled "The spatiality of one's own Body and Motility". It seemed to me that I could analyse the speech syndromes Luria reveals, and Luria's explanations, in much the same way that Merleau-Ponty analysed Schneider's syndrome and the explanations offered by Goldstein and others. I felt that in this way I would be able to exhibit certain features of the speaking subject and its relations with others, in the same way that Merleau-Ponty revealed the spatiality of the body and its relations with the world. This seemed to me to be a useful project, firstly because of the central role that the problem of language plays in Merleau-Ponty's later philosophy and because the later reflections on language seem to presuppose such an analysis of pathological forms of speech.

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

Department of Philosophy

Year dc:date.issued

1989

Author dc:creator

• Wait, Eldon Christopher

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Shutte, M F N

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/11427/17230

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/17230