Present diploma thesis tries to show differences of linguistic performances in Alzheimer´s Disease and Vascular Dementia. Although there is an apparent emphasis on the Alzheimer´s Disease within the whole dementia research, some research groups focused the same problem just like this diploma thesis. The general opinion is that linguistic abilities in both types of dementia present themselves in a similar vein. Anomia, a phenomenon which is one of the first disorders in dementia "leads" all

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... rments. Concerning the verbal fluency, the performances are comparable with those of healthy controls, at least the total words per minute. But when you look at the language in its entirety, you can see that the whole speech of demented persons is poorer on information. In the literature, the researchers call this phenomenon "empty speech". Nouns often are replaced by pronouns, which is a fact influenced by anomia. Semantic distinguish marks assume an important role when persons have to name objects or activities: Demented persons lose the knowledge of functionality of objects; this phenomenon leads to the problem of poor naming of instrumental objects. When you look at stories which are told of demented persons, you will find many differences compared to healthy controls. Demented persons are not capable to keep the central theme in mind and report many unimportant details. They have to use more turn-takings in dialogues to transport the information to the conversational partner. In this diploma thesis, the influence of memory, perception and depression is discussed. De facto, patients who suffer from Alzheimer´s Disease indicate more disturbances in the short- and middle-term memory. However persons with Vascular Dementia do have more problems in planning and attention tasks. Even pseudo-dementia plays a major role than many people think. Because of many similar symptoms diagnosticians confuse dementia with depression.