Comparing the discourse of patients with Alzheimer (at the early and middle stages of disease) and Persian-speaking normal individuals: A linguistic and pragmatic approach

Document Type : Research

Authors

1 M.A. in linguistics, Department of English Language and Literature, University of Guilan, Rasht, Iran

2 Associate Professor in Linguistics, Department of English Language and Literature, University of Guilan, Rasht, Iran

3 PhD in linguistics, Department of English Language and Literature, Lorestan University, Khorabad, Iran

Abstract

Neurolinguistics is an interdisciplinary field that explores the relationship between language and various aspects of cognitive function. It investigates the inner workings of the mind within the framework of linguistics (Ahlsen, 2006). A recurring question in this field is whether an individual's linguistic and pragmatic abilities can independently enhance or hinder communication for those with neurological disorders. Some individuals with aphasia can compensate for their linguistic deficits by relying on their pragmatic skills. However, it has been observed that individuals with dementia, due to impaired pragmatic abilities, struggle to maintain their communication skills (Ulatowska & Chapman, 1995). Despite numerous studies, the exact nature of the pragmatic breakdown in dementia remains poorly understood and is a subject of ongoing debate (Garcia & Joanette, 1994).
Alzheimer's disease is the most common form of dementia. According to the International Classification of Diseases, Alzheimer's is characterized as a gradual decline in memory and cognitive function that impairs daily activities (Kilmova et al., 2015). This disease affects various aspects of cognitive function, including memory, reasoning, thinking, language, and judgment, gradually causing linguistic and cognitive problems by shrinking the cerebral cortex (Milton, 2008). Linguistic deficits are often among the first cognitive signs of Alzheimer's disease. These deficits manifest as difficulties in understanding word meanings, finding appropriate words, naming objects, and comprehending words due to a decline in the social aspects of language. Consequently, individuals with Alzheimer's may struggle in social communication, speaking excessively, loudly, repeating themselves, or losing track of the conversation's topic.
Assessing and identifying the language problems of individuals with Alzheimer's requires a comprehensive understanding of how the disease impacts language and the patients' cognitive perceptions. Recognizing the language abilities and disabilities of Alzheimer's patients at different stages of the disease can inform the provision of rehabilitation services for this segment of society. This research seeks to provide scientific insights into the linguistic performance of Persian-speaking Alzheimer's patients. The study aims to compare the discourse of Persian-speaking normal individuals and patients with Alzheimer's (at early and middle stages of the disease) at both linguistic and pragmatic levels. The study aims to address the following questions:
Is there a significant difference in the discourse of Persian-speaking normal individuals and patients with Alzheimer's (at the early and middle stages of the disease) at linguistic levels?
Is there a significant difference in the discourse of Persian-speaking normal individuals and patients with Alzheimer's (at the early and middle stages of the disease) at pragmatic levels?

Keywords

References

  1. Aghababaie, S., Safvai, K. (2016). Examining the structure of lyrical literature from a linguistic point of view, relying on Jacobsen's theory of linguistic roles. Literary Text Research 69, 7-34. [In Persian].
  2. Ahlsen, E. (2006). Introduction to neurolinguistics. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Compony.
  3. Azad, O., (2014). Understanding idioms in Persian-speaking Alzheimer's patients (PhD dissertaion). Allameh Tabataba’i University, Tehran, Iran. [In Persian].
  4. Báez, S., Mendoza, L., Reyes, P., Matallana, D., Montañés, P. (2009). Interpretation of proverbs and Alzheimer's disease. Revista de Neurologia, 49(11), 566-572.
  5. Bickel, C., Pantel, J., Eysenbach, K., Schröder, J. (2000). Syntactic comprehension deficits in Alzheimer's disease. Brain and Language, 71(3), 432-448.
  6. Bishop, D. V., Norbury, C. F. (2002). Exploring the borderlands of autistic disorder and specific language impairment: a study using standardized diagnostic instrument. Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 43(7), 917-929.
  7. Bourgeois, M., Dijkstra, K., Burgio, L., & Allen, R. S. (2004). Communication skills training for nursing aides of residents with dementia: The impact of measuring performance. Clinical Gerontologist, 27, 119-138.
  8. Brandão, L., Monção, A. M., Andersson, R., & Holmqvist, K. (2014). Discourse intervention strategies in Alzheimer’s disease: Eye-tracking and the effect of visual cues in conversation. Dementia de Neuropsychologia, 8(3), 278-284.
  9. Brown G., & Yule, G. (1983). Discourse Analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  10. Carlomango, A. (1994[1989]). Pragmatics in Aphasia, (G. Hodkinson, Trans.), San Diego: Singular Publishing Group, Inc.
  11. Chapman, S. B., Highley, A. P., Thompson, J. L. (1998). Discourse in fluent aphasia and Alzheimer's disease: Linguistic and pragmatic considerations. Journal of Neurolinguistics, 11, 55-78.
  12. Chapman, S. B., Ulatowska, H. K., King, K., Johnson, J., & McIntire, D. D. (1995). Discourse in early Alzheimerˈs disease versus normal advanced aging. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 4, 125-129.
  13. Chertkow, H., Whatmough, C., Murtha, S., Fung, T. D., Whitehead, V., Peloquin, L., Templeman, F. D. (2001). The spectrum of category effect in object and action knowledge in dementia of the Alzheimerˈs type. Neuropsychology, 15(3), 371-379.
  14. Croot, K., J. Hodges., J. Xuereb., & K. Patterson. (2000). Phonological and articulatory impairment in Alzheimerˈs disease: Acase series. Brain and Language, 75, 277-309.
  15. Dashtian Moghadam, S. (2011). Investigation of semantic meaning in Persian language for mild and moderate Persian Alzheimer's patients (Master Thesis). Islamic Azad University, Central Tehran Branch, Tehran, Iran [In Persian].
  16. Delis, D. C., Kramer, J. & Kaplan, E. (1984). The Calfornia Proverb Test. Unpublished protocol.
  17. Diaz, M., Sailor, K., Cheung, D., Kuslansky, G. (2004). Category size effects in semantic and letter fluency in Alzheimer's patients. Brain and Language, 98(1), 108-14.
  18. Duong, A., Tardif, A., Ska, B. (2003). Discourse about discourse: what is it and how does it progress in Alzheimer's disease?. Brain and Cognition, 177-80.
  19. Farhadi, M., Mirzaalhoseini, S., and Nazari, A. (2017). Criticism and review of circumlocution and explanation in the translation of Sajjadiyeh's book based on the theory of Antoine Berman (case study: Ansariyan's translation). Translation Researches in the Arabic Language and Literature 17. 31-53. [In Persian].
  20. Feyereisen, P., Berrewaerts, J., Hupet, M. (2007). Pragmatic skills in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease: an analysis by means of a referential communication task. International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders, 42(1), 1-17.
  21. Garcia, L. J., & Joanette, Y. (1994). Conversational toping-shifting analysis in dementia. In R. L. Bloom, L. K. Obler, S. DeSanti, and J. S. Ehrlich (Ed.), Discourse analysis and applications: Studies in adult clinical populations (pp. 161-183). Hillsdale: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
  22. Golbaz, A. (2007). Investigating the discourse characteristics of Persian-speaking Alzheimer's patients (Master Thesis). Allameh Tabataba’i University, Tehran, Iran. [In Persian].
  23. Green, G. (1996). Pragmatics and Natural Language Understanding. UK: Routledge.
  24. Guzman-Velez, E., Feinstein. J. S., Tranel. D. (2014). Feeling without Memory in Alzheimer Disease. Cognitive and Behavioral Neurology, 27(3), 117-129.
  25. Hung, P. (2010). "Mental imagery and idiom understanding in adults: Examining dual coding theory". Ph.D. dissertation, University of Oregon, Oregon, USA.
  26. Kavoosinejad, S. (1997). Ellipsis in Farsi. Nama-i Farhangestan 12. 146-166. [In Persian].
  27. Kempler, D., VanLancker, D., & Read, S. (1999). Proverb and idiom comprehension in Alzheimerˈs disease and associated disorders. Alzheimer Disease and Associated Disorders, 2, 38-49.
  28. Khoddam, A. (2004). A comparative study of some language characteristics of old persons from mild to moderate Alzheimer's patients with normal persons (Master’s thesis). University of Social Welfare and Rehablitation Sciences, Tehran, Iran [In Persian].
  29. Kilmova, B., Maresova, P., Valis, M., Hort, J., Kuka, K. (2015). Alzheimer's disease and language impairments: social intervention and medical treatment. Clinical Internentions in Aging, 10, 1401-1408.
  30. Kim, M., Thompson, C. K. (2001). Verb deficits in Alzheimer's disease and agrammatism: Semantic versus syntactic impairments. Brain and Language, 79, 125–127
  31. Lai, Y. (2014). Discourse Features of Chinese-Speaking Seniors with and without Alzheimer’s Disease. Language & Linguistic, 15(3), 411-434.
  32. Milton, J. D. (2008). Working memory and academic learning. Canada: John Wiley and sons, Inc.
  33. Motavalian Naini, R. Ostovar Abarghooie, A. (2013). Syntax errors of Arabic speakers in learning Persian as a second language. Journal of Teaching Persian to Speakers of Other Languages, 2, 57-86. [In Persian].
  34. Mueller, K. D., Hermann, B., Mecollari, J., Turkstra, L. S. (2018). Connected speech and language in mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease: A review of picture description tasks. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, 40(9), 917-939.
  35. Murdoch, B. E., Chenery, H. J., Wilks, V., & Boyle, R. J. (1987). Language disorders in dementia of the Alzheimerˈs type. Brain & Language, 31,122-137.
  36. Naghz-gooye Kohan, M., & Hakimara, Z. (2010). The loss of the current inflectional possibilities in the modern Persian language and its consequences. Journal of Researches in Linguistucs, 1, 97-114. [In Persian].
  37. Pappagno, C., Lucchelli, F., Mugia, S., & Rizzo, S. (2003). Idiom comprehension in Alzheimerˈs disease: The role of the central executive. Brain, 126, 2419-2430.
  38. Paradis, M., Paribakht, T., & Nilipour, R. (1987). The Bilingual Aphasia Test (Farsi version). Hillsdale, NJ: Laurence Erlbaum.
  39. Rassiga, C., Lucchelli, F., Crippa, F., & Papagno, C. (2008). Ambiguous idiom comprehension in Alzheimerˈs disease. Journal of Clinical & Experimental Neuropsychology, 31, 1-10.
  40. Ripich, D. N., Terrell, B. Y., & Spinelli, F. (1983). Discourde cohesion in senile dementia of the Alzheime type. In R. H. Brookshire (Ed.), Clinical aphasiology conference proceedings (pp. 316-321). Minneapolis: BRK Publishers.
  41. Rochon, E., Waters, G. S., Caplan, D. (2000). The relationship between measures of working memory and sentence comprehension in patients with Alzheimer's disease. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 43 (2), 395-413.
  42. Ryu, H. J., Kang, H. S., Kim, H. J., & Han, S. H. (2009). Proverbs comprehension & executive function in Alzheimerˈs & Parkinsonˈs diseas: Advances, Concepts & new challenges, Prague, Czech Republic.
  43. Shibata, D., Wakamiya, S., Aramaki. E. (2016). Detecting Japanese Patients with Alzheimer’s Disease based on Word Category Frequencies. In Yuji Matsumoto and Rashmi Prasad (Eds.), Proceedings of the Clinical Natural Language Processing Workshop (ClinicalNLP) (pp. 78-85). Japan: The COLING 2016 Organizing Committee.
  44. Szatloczki, G., Hoffmann, I., Vincze, V., Kalman, J., Pakaski, M. (2015). Speaking in Alzheimer's Disease, is That an Early Sign? Importance of Changes in Language Abilities in Alzheimer's Disease. Front Aging Neurosci, 7, 195.
  45. Taherlou, F. (2010). Pause in Farsi. Journal of Language and Linguistics 11. 139-168. [In Persian].
  46. Taki, G. (1999). Cohesion and coherence of the text in Persian language. Humanities Journal of University of Sistan and Baluchestan, 8, 129-140. [In Persian].
  47. Ulatowska, H. K., & Chapman, S. B. (1995). Discourse studies. In R. Lubinski (Ed.), Dementia and communication (pp. 115-132). San Diego: Singular Publishing Group.
  48. Wertz, R. T. (1981). Language deficit in aphasia and dementia: The same as, different from, or both. Aphasiology: Proceedings of the Conference for Veterans Administration Medical Center, Martinez, California, 350-359
ZABANPAZHUHI (Journal of Language Research)
Volume 15, Issue 48
December 2023
Pages 253-287

Files

Share

How to cite

Statistics