5. THE DIAGRAM
The following diagram attempts to combine all of the elements mentioned in this paper. It is a macroscopic view of the relation between child and aphasic language and their proximity to my composition process.
In order to properly dive into all the subjects that are touched, it would need years of researching each individual block. That’s why it is important to remember that the centre of this research is my personal work and the way I filter the tools extracted from these fields. Everything that I mention ends up in practical application. The idea of the whole research started from the fact that, for many years, I had been dealing with the deconstruction and rearrangement of texts and vocal music empirically and the main challenge was to look for a theoretical basis connected to my practice. The appearance of the prelinguistic language and aphasia are for me “brave new worlds” and “words”, to which I was led by following the thread of my work. Numerous practical new ideas have already flourished, only because of this realization.
Eventually, the following diagram incorporates all the tools so far, even those which do not relate to prelinguistic language and aphasic disorders.
5.1. The blocks
Anything placed inside a box could be seen as a stage, a “stasis”. Anything placed over an arrow is a dynamic process (although the “static” stages can be approached as constantly changing as well).
At the centre of the diagram, the block “Mature speech” is placed. What is meant by “mature” is the grown-up ordinary use of language, after the child's brain is fully capable of using the codes of a certain language.
On the left “Prelinguistic period” is placed. These are the beginning stages of language, the “babbling period”.
On the right “Decomposed language” is placed. This is the result of processing mature language. The process towards this de-composition can be either “natural” or “artificial”.
-Artificial (“Deconstruction”): This process is related to a conscious choice of deconstruction, by someone who already possesses the tools of organized healthy speech. The roots of such processes can be found in different areas, arts or sciences, such as the art of sound, linguistics, psychology and its many categorizations, even law.
-Natural (“Aphasia related disorders”): Natural is the process that owes its existence to the natural course of time, an event that happens without human control. This can be aging and the natural decline of one's health, or mental disorders. Historically, mental disorders resulting in speech disturbances are called aphasic disorders.
Four arrows also exist in the diagram:
The upper arrows point towards the linear course of time, showing that the prelinguistic period precedes in relation to mature speech, and mature speech precedes in relation to decomposed language. This means that language cannot be decomposed in any of the ways already mentioned, if it is not already “composed”, meaning fully acquired.
Apart from that, over the first arrow lies the phrase “Linguistic castration” (a term often used by Selma Freiberg to describe the loss of the linguistic abundance of the prelinguistic stage). This is the term used to describe the passage from prelinguistic period to mature speech, in which the toddler loses all the limitless abilities they had till that moment. It is a dynamic process, in the same way that deconstruction of the language is a dynamic process as well.
The lower arrows are related to a “mature speaker’s” conscious decision to look for information within these areas. In this way, as a composer who is looking for musical information in the “prelinguistic period”, I am taking a step backwards in relation to the course of time, in relation to where I am standing now. On the other hand, If I look for information to the block of “decomposed language”, I take a step forward, since I am actually following the arrow of the natural course of time.
5.2. Terms
The following catalogue is a collection of terms - tools resulting from the diagram, which I have already used in my music. In the following chapter these tools-terms will be connected to a specific score or audio example and expanded upon
a. Prelinguistic period
a.1. Babbling language
a.2. Exclamations and Interjections (also common in linguistics)
a.3. Onomatopoeia (also common in aphasic disorders)
a.4. Echolalia (also common in aphasic disorders)
a.5. Inner speech (also common in aphasic disorders)
b. Deconstruction
b.1. Sound-based terms
b.1.1. Epirotic acapella music
b.1.2. Heterophony
b.1.3. Echo and distortion
b.1.4. Ornamentation
b.2. Linguistics-based terms
b.2.1. Prosody
b.2.2. Lexiplasia
b.2.3 "Shadow language"
b.2.4. “Clouds”
b.3. Law based terms
b.3.1. Specificatio
b.4. Nature-based terms
b.4.1. Geophony
b.4.2. Biophony
b.5. Gesture-based approaches
b.5.1. Byzantine quality characters
b.5.2. Whistling languages
b.5.3. The use of symbols
c. Linguistic castration
c.1. Secret languages
c.1.1. The Louis Wolfson case
c.1.2. Hildegard von Bingen's “Lingua Ignota”
c.1.3. Glossolalia
d. Aphasic disorders
Broca's aphasia
Wernicke's aphasia
Anomic aphasia
Global aphasia
d.1. Logorrhea
d.2. Stuttering
d.3. Apophenia
d.4. Alalia
d.5. Types of amnesia (common also in linguistics)
d.5.1. sound amnesia
d.5.2. word amnesia
d.5.3. agrammatism
d.5.4. sound paraphasia
d.5.5. verbal paraphasia
d.5.6. paragrammatism
d.5.7. homonymy
d.5.8. polysemy
d.5.9. paronymy
e. Terms applying to more than one specific field
e.1. Redundant sound information (common in the prelinguistic stage, whistled languages, and sound-based terms)
e.2. Classes of sound perception (common in sound-based terms and aphasic disorders)
