Rights Creative Commons: Attribution 3.0 Hong Kong License A Cantonese Linguistic Communication Measure

Although there has been a long-standing interest in many different aspects of English aphasic speech, studies of Cantonese aphasic narrative production have only emerged in recent years. This paper presents a Cantonese linguistic communication measure (henceforth, the Cantonese LCM); which is a convenient measure for analyzing and quantifying Cantonese aphasic narratives. Taking into consideration the characteristics of Cantonese grammar, the lexical diversity, efficiency, grammaticality and elaborateness of Cantonese aphasic language output were quantified. Sixteen Cantonese-speaking aphasic patients and sixteen normal control subjects were recruited to carry out a picture description task. The findings indicated that most of the indices in the Cantonese LCM were able to distinguish between normal individuals and aphasic patients. However, only two indices that focused on the quantity of word production could distinguish between fluent and non-fluent aphasic speakers. Given the simplicity of the computation of indices, this profile may, on one hand, render speech therapists in general clinical settings an objective, quick and convenient means to monitor their aphasic patients ' progress or deterioration in expressive language ability and on the other hand, assist intervention planning.