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Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between stuttering severity and inflectional morphemes stuttered in 15-35 year-old stutterers with mild to moderate severity.Method of Analysis: 20 stutters were randomly recruited (10 with a mild stuttering problem and 10 with a moderate one). Participants' speech was recorded during reading a text (about 400 syllables) in a natural setting for 3-5 minutes. Then the speech was analyzed and types of inflectional morphemes stuttered were identified. Stuttering severity was also measured utilizing the SSI-4 scale.Findings: Data analyses indicated that there is a direct, significant and linear relationship between moderate stuttering severity and inflectional morphemes in particular types of verb prefixes (r= .671, p=.024), and there is a direct and linear relationship between mild stuttering severity and inflectional morphemes in type of verb prefixes (r=.249, p=.008), whereas this relationship was not statistically meaningful (p<.05). There is no meaningful statistical relationship between mild to moderate stuttering severity and inflectional morphemes (i.e., plural, indefinite, comparative and superlative, transient maker and identity verbs) (p<.05). Conclusion:Results demonstrated a reduction in stuttering severity in inflectional morphemes (as a result of the low length, meaning and complexity of words) and no meaningful statistical relationship between stuttering severity (mild and moderate) and inflectional morphemes.