Semantic changes observed in aphasic patients are examined in two aspects: as transfers of names and transfers of meaning. The most frequent in the material under scrutiny are semantic changes resulting form the contiguity of meanings (metonymies) and shifts motivated by the similarity of names (paronymies). Changes based on the similarity of meanings (metaphors) and the contiguity of names (ellipses) are less frequent. The relative frequencies of the mechanisms underlying semantic change in aphasia lead one to reflect on the nature of cognitive functions in aphasic patients. That the configurations of form and content, obtained by analyzing aphasic texts, are stored in people´s cognitive structures and as such constitute templates or patterns necessary for the comprehension and description of reality, as well as for the segmentation of interpreted sequences of information. The patterns recognized in the present study pertain primarily to the visible, physical world, judgments of non-material mental images are less frequent.