The tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon: a neurolinguistic approach

Author(s)

Marcus Vinicius Borges Oliveira

• Document type: Doctoral Thesis
• Press: Campinas, SP.
• Institution: Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Instituto de Estudos da Linguagem
• Defense date: 2015-06-04

Examining board members

Rosana do Carmo Novaes Pinto; Ester Mirian Scarpa; Guilherme do Val Toledo Prado; Lourenço Chacon Jurado Filho; Susan Angela Petrilli

• Advisor: Rosana do Carmo Novaes Pinto

Abstract

Known in the field literature as "tip of the tongue", herein after "TOT", this phenomenon refers to the state when someone searches for a word, accompanied by the feeling that it will soon come or that it has already gone, which explains the use of the metaphor that the word is on "the tip of the tongue". The main goal of this thesis is to characterize the TOT phenomenon on the basis of theoretical-methodological principles of the historical-cultural approach, which underlie enunciative-discursive Neurolinguistics. This core task relates to other more specific ones, including: (1) to discuss and give visibility to the constitutive relationship among the higher functions, especially that between language and memory; (ii) to contribute to the development of a qualitative methodology of TOTs; and, finally, (iii) to understand the search strategies of the target word, contributing not only to understand aspects of lexical processes involved in TOTs, but also to support the work in the clinical and therapeutic context with aphasic subjects. To achieve these goals, we dialogue with the ideas of several authors, among whom: i) Luria and Vygotsky, particularly regarding the work they have developed together in the field of Neuropsychology; ii) Bakhtin and his Circle, in the field of Philosophy of Language; and iii) Jakobson, in Linguistics, in addition to the authors who have dedicated their studies to the field of Neurolinguistics. Most of the published studies on TOTs are founded on empirical grounds and present results analyzed quantitatively. In this thesis, we confront such studies with pioneer research carried out by William James, Robert Woodworth and Sigmund Freud. We also propose alternative ways of studying TOTs, developing different qualitative procedures which, in our view, allow for advances in the characterization of a TOT as a dialogical event. We aim to relate TOTs to higher psychological functions keeping account of the dialogic nature of signs and of the relation between language and ideology. Finally, we correlate the main points of this thesis to the ethical dimension of therapeutic work in the field of language, indicating possible strategies in the clinical context to minimize the sufferings of aphasic individuals when faced with the impossibility of their speech-will (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 11/08868-4 - The "Tip-of-the-tongue" phenomenon: a neurolinguistic approach
• Grantee: Marcus Vinicius Borges Oliveira
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate