Brain and Language 71, 106–109 (2000) doi:10.1006/brln.1999.2225, available online at http://www.idealibrary.com on The Ineluctable and Interdependent Evolution of the Concepts of Language and Aphasia Yves Joanette Centre de recherche, Institut universitaire de ge ´riatrie de Montre ´al, Que ´bec, Canada; and Faculte ´ de me ´decine, Universite ´ de Montre ´al, Que ´bec, Canada and Ana Ine ´s Ansaldo Centre de recherche, Institut universitaire de ge ´riatrie de Montre ´al, Que ´bec, Canada; and Service d’orthophonie, Ho ˆpital du Sacre ´-Coeur, Montre ´al, Que ´bec, Canada The term aphasia was introduced by Trousseau in 1864 (Ryalls, 1984). It then referred to the state in which ‘‘. . . an individual who still possesses his intellectual faculties and who has intact organs of articulation and phonation, nevertheless cannot express that which he means to say’’ (translated from Trousseau, 1864). This nineteenth-century definition corresponds to how the concept of aphasia has been understood throughout the twentieth century. With the advent of linguistics as a field, the way in which one can ‘‘. . . ex- press that which he means to say . . .’’ was captured by the concept of lan- guage. It followed that the term aphasia was defined as an impairment of language subsequent to a brain lesion. Apart from an isolated attempt to force some of the characteristics of the lesion responsible for an aphasia into this definition (e.g., localization, lateralization, etiology), the clinical understanding of what aphasia is and is not became linked to our understand- ing of what language is and is not. However, the concepts of language and of aphasia have both benefited and suffered from their long-standing (more than century-old) relationship. Indeed, aphasia is one of the first deficits of cognition to have been truly recognized as such and studied during the nine- teenth century. We still benefit from the incredible clinical clear-sightedness This research was supported by grants from the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada and from the Medical Research Council of Canada (Grant MT-15006) to Y.J. Address correspondence and reprint requests to Yves Joanette, Centre de recherche, Institut universitaire de ge ´riatrie de Montre ´al, 4565 chemin Queen Mary, Montre ´al QC H3W 1W5, Canada. E-mail: yves.joanette@umontreal.ca. 106 0093-934X/00 $35.00 Copyright  2000 by Academic Press All rights of reproduction in any form reserved.