Zwierzȩ mniej doskonałe

The article poses questions about the meaning of the terms.more" and less" in regard to linguistic ability. The author suggests that the application of these terms may be more problematic than it seems. The lack experienced by aphasics can be construed both as an absence of language and as an excessive presence of memory - memory of the time when one did not yet possess the ability to speak. These reflections are partly inspired and partly supported by close readings of selected passages from the Arabic polymath Al-Jahiz, Sigmund Freud's correspondence, his forgotten early book on aphasia, and one of Franz Kafka's aphorisms. Special attention is given to Freud's functional model of aphasia and his view of memory as a process of translation. Przetożyi Maciej Mrozik.