The Neurolinguistics of Bilingualism: An Introduction

This book introduces the reader to both neurolinguisticsper seand the neuropsychological aspects of bilingualism. Neurolinguistics may roughly be defined as a subset of neuropsychology, namely the study of the representation and processing of language in the brain. To this effect, the first chapters of the book focus on the basic neuropsychology of language processing and acquisition. The second half of the book addresses the issues of cerebral representation and processing of language in bi- or multilingual subjects. All aspects are systematically dealt with, including the definition of bilingualism; an analysis of all the issues related to bilingual aphasia, i.e. patterns of recovery of the patients' various languages in diverse populations; an investigation of the methodologies used in the study of the neuropsychological aspects of the various linguistic functions, such as comprehension, production and translation; and lastly, the issues of cerebral lateralization and neuroanatomical localizationof the numerous cortical and subcortical structures subserving the various language system components in multilingual subjects. The book is an excellent introduction to both the neuropsychology of language and the phenomena related to bilingualism. It will be of particular interest to students of language therapy, aphasiology, applied psycholinguistics, neurolinguistics and, in general, to students of medicine who wish to become more knowledgeable about the specific needs of patients in a multilingual society.