Introduction: Imageability is a psycholinguistic variable that indicates how well a word gives rise to a mental image or sensory experience. Imageability ratings are used extensively in psycholinguistic, neuropsychological and aphasiological studies. However, little formal knowledge exists on whether and how these ratings are associated between and within languages. Methods and results:Fifteen imageability databases were cross-correlated using non-parametric statistics. Some of these corresponded to unpublished data collected within a European research network -the Collaboration of Aphasia Trialists (COST IS1208). All but four correlations were significant. The average strength of the correlations (rho =.68) and the variance explained (R 2 =46%)were moderate. This implies that factors other than imageability may explain 54% of the results. Conclusion: Imageability ratings often correlate across languages. Different possibly interactingfactors may explain the moderate strength and variance in the correlations: (1) linguistic and cultural factors; (2) intrinsic differences between databases; (3) range effects; (4) small numbers of words in each database, equivalent words, and participants; and (5) mean age of participants. The results suggest that imageability ratings may be used cross-linguistically. However, further understanding of the factors explaining the variance in the correlations is needed, before research and practice recommendations can be made.

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By taking into consideration conversational outputs from aphasic Spanish speakers, a functional characterisation of suspended syntactic constructions will be provided here. Suspensions of syntactic constructions may be initially thought of as attributed to a language processing deficit in people with aphasia, which is, in fact, only partly the case. An examination of conversational data demonstrates, however, that a comprehensive explanation of syntactic suspensions requires a re-assessment of this phenomenon in the realm of meta-cognitive processes associated with language behaviour. Five general types of procedures and contexts for suspended syntactic constructions will be proposed and discussed in this paper. They differentially involve a series of metacognitive processes such as monitoring for anticipation and prevention of foreseeable mistakes, intersemiotic control of language production and communication by the use of gesturing, motivational and intentional aspects associated with language use, collaborative tasks in language production and theory of mind phenomena.

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