Effects of Alzheimers dementia on conversational ability: a case study
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21504/sajg.v6i1.105Abstract
This paper reports on a case study of the effects of dementia of the Alzheimer's type (DAT) on three aspects of conversational ability: turn-taking, fluency and coherence. Three conversations held over a period of 12 months with a bilingual DAT sufferer are analyzed. The results show that some aspects of conversational ability, such as turn-taking, are vulnerable to dementia and show no sign of potential recovery, unlike changes in fluency. The fluency of the subject's language use initially declined but subsequently improved somewhat. Her capacity to respond coherently systematically broke down and the responses became increasingly aberrant. The paper also highlights the problems of including conversational abilities as a separate, additional diagnostic measure of DAT.References
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Bialystok, E. 1990. Communication strategies: a psychological analysis of second language use. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
Cameron, D., Frazer. E. Harvey. P., Rampton, M.B.H. & Richardson. K. 1992. Researching language issues of power and method. New York: Routledge.
Clark, H. & Clark. E. 1977. Psychology and language: an introduction to psycholinguistics. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
Critcheley, M. 1953. The parietal lobes, London: Edward Arnold.
Coupland, N., Coupland, J. & Giles. H. 1991. Accommodating the elderly: invoking and extending a theory. Language in Society. 17(1): 1-41.
Dechert, H. 1984. Individual variation in language. In: Dechen, H.. Mohle. D. & Raupach, M. (Eds) Second language production. Tubingen: Gunter Nan1, pp. 162-174.
Faerch, K. & Kasper, G. 1985. Strategies in interlanguage communication. London: Longman.
Fairclough, N. 1992. Discourse and social change. Cambridge. UK: Polity Press.
Goffman, E. i 961. Asylums. Essays on the social situation of mental patients and other inmates. Garden City, NY: Doubleday.
Goffman, E. 1967. Interaction ritual. Garden City. NY: Doubleday.
Goldman-Eisler. F. 1968. Psycholinguistics. New York: Academic Press.
Grice, H.P. 1975. Logic and conversation. In: Cole. P, & Morgan, J.L. (Eds) Speech acts, syntax and semantics. Volume 3. New York: Academic Press. pp. 41-58.
Halliday, M.A.K. 1978. Language as social semiotic. London: Edward Arnold.
Halliday, M.A.K, & Hasan. R. 1976. Cohesion in English. London: Edward Arnold.
Hamilton, H. 1994. Conversations with an Alzheimer's patient. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
Hyltenstam, K. & Stroud. C. 1994. Second language regression in Alzheimers dementia. In: Hyltenstam, K. & Viberg, A. (Eds) Progression and regression in language. Sociocultural, neuropsychological and linguistic perspectives. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Lesser, R. & Milroy. L. 1993. Psycholinguistics and pragmatic aspects of aphasia. London and New York: Longman.
Levinson, S. 1983. Pragmatics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Lubinski, R.B. 1981. Language and aging: an environmental approach to intervention. Topics in Language Disorders. 1: 89-97.
Nussbaum, J.F. 1993. The communicative impact of institutionalisation for the elderly: the admissions process. Journal of Aging Studies. 7(3): 238- 246.
Penn, C. 1985. The profile of communicative appropriateness: a clinical tool for the assessment of pragmatics. South African Journal of Communication Disorders, 32(2): 18-23.
Penn, C. 1988. The profiling of syntax and pragmatics in aphasia. Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics, 12(3): 179-207.
Sabat, S. 1994. Language function in Alzheimer's disease. A critical review of selected literature. Language and Communication, 4(1): 331-351.
Sacks, O. 1987. The man who mistook his wife for a hat and other clinical tales. New York: Harper & Row.
Schiffrin, D. 1987. Discourse markers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Sharwatz, M., Narian, O. & Saffran, E. 1979. Dissociation of language function in dementia: a case study. Brain and Language, 7: 277-306.
Sorace, A. 1990. Indeterminacy in first and second languages. Theoretical and methodological issues. In: De Jorig, J.H.A. & Stevenson. D.K. (Eds) Individualizing the assessment of language abilities. Clevedon, PA: Multilingual Matters, pp. 127-154.
Tannen, D. 1984. Conversational style: analysing talk among friends. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.
Tannen, D, 1989. Talking voices. Repetition, dialogue and imagery in conversational discourse. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Towell, R. 1987. Variability and progress in the language development of abstract learners of a foreign language. In: Ellis, R. (Ed.) Second language acquisition London: Prentice Hall, pp. 113-129.
Van Els, T. 1986. An overview of European research on language attrition. In: Weltens, B., De Bot, K. & Van Els, T. (Eds) Language attrition in progress. Dordrecht, Holland: Providence Foris. pp. 1-12.
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1997-04-01
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