Clinical linguistics: its past, present and future

Historiography is a growing area of research within the discipline of linguistics, but so far the subfield of clinical linguistics has received virtually no systematic attention. This article attempts to rectify this by tracing the development of the discipline from its pre-scientific days up to the present time. As part of this, I include the results of a survey of articles published in Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics between 1987 and 2008 which shows, for example, a consistent primary focus on phonetics and phonology at the expense of grammar, semantics and pragmatics. I also trace the gradual broadening of the discipline from its roots in structural linguistics to its current reciprocal relationship with speech and language pathology and a range of other academic disciplines. Finally, I consider the scope of clinical linguistic research in 2011 and assess how the discipline seems likely develop in the future.