fluent aphasia
- noun
- /ˈfluːənt əˈfeɪʒə/
- Specialized
:
afasia fluente
- People with fluent aphasia may have normal vocal inflection but use words that lack meaning.
The evidence is mounting that what Donald Trump is suffering from is something called fluent aphasia.
- The evidence is mounting that what Donald Trump is suffering from is something called fluent aphasia.
Examples
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However, speakers with fluent aphasia produced more iconic gestures than the other groups, whereas speakers with nonfluent aphasia produced more deictic and metalinguistic gestures.
Academic text (2013) -
The doctor explained that fluent aphasia makes it difficult for patients to understand others, even though they can speak easily.
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Individuals diagnosed with fluent aphasia may talk in long sentences, but their words often fail to convey any real meaning.
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In a case study, a person with fluent aphasia spoke rapidly, yet their comments were often incomprehensible to listeners.
Synonyms
1
9.2
Able to speak easily but say words that do not make sense and cannot understand speech or writing
A condition where a person speaks in long sentences that do not make sense and cannot understand speech or writing
Fluent speech that has little meaning and very poor understanding of what others say or write
A condition in which a person speaks smoothly but their words have little meaning and cannot understand speech or writing
Surface Forms
Morphology
The term is compositionally transparent: 'fluent' (able to speak easily) modifies 'aphasia' (loss of language ability), so a learner who knows both constituents can infer it denotes a type of aphasia in which speech remains fluent despite impaired language comprehension or content. This follows a standard adjective + medical-noun pattern common across languages, making the meaning accessible to a B1 learner familiar with the two words.
Etymology
Fluent aphasia combines fluent, meaning 'smooth, flowing speech', and aphasia, meaning 'loss of language'. Imagine a river of words that flows easily but carries the wrong things, so the person speaks in long, easy sentences that 'make little sense' and has trouble understanding others.