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Interactional differences in Alzheimer's discourse: An examination of AD speech across two audiences

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 February 2009

Vai Ramanathan-Abbott
Vai Ramanathan-Abbott
Affiliation:
Department of Linguistics, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089
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Abstract

Assessments of the narrative abilities of patients suffering from Alzheimer's disease should consider the interactions that generate the narratives. By analyzing the discourse of an AD patient in interaction with two different interlocutors, namely her husband and the author, this study calls attention to ways in which one interaction facilitates narratives and the other does not. Previous psycholinguistic research, largely focusing on the resultant narrative, has understood the AD patient's deteriorating narrative skills as a result of the progressively debilitating nature of the disease. This is undoubtedly true, but extensive and meaningful talk is nevertheless possible, partially grounded in and constructed through social interaction. (Discourse analysis, Alzheimer's disease, narrative social interaction)

Type
Articles
Information
Language in Society , Volume 23 , Issue 1 , March 1994 , pp. 31 - 58
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1994

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