Examining Pauses in Alzheimer's Discourse

This discussion examines how speaker pauses, both filled and silent, are keyed to functions within a conversation and to functions within narration. In Alzheimer's discourse, pause-fillers can be both placeholders and hesitation markers; they may be ohs and ums or longer formulaic phrases. Extr...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:American journal of Alzheimer's disease and other dementias 2009-04, Vol.24 (2), p.141-154
Main Authors: Davis, Boyd H., Maclagan, Margaret
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aged, 80 and over
Alzheimer Disease - physiopathology
Alzheimer Disease - psychology
Female
Humans
Narration
Phonetics
Semantics
Speech Production Measurement
Verbal Behavior
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Summary:This discussion examines how speaker pauses, both filled and silent, are keyed to functions within a conversation and to functions within narration. In Alzheimer's discourse, pause-fillers can be both placeholders and hesitation markers; they may be ohs and ums or longer formulaic phrases. Extracts from the speech of 4 older women from the United States and from New Zealand are reviewed for changes in syntactic complexity, for retention of story components, and for pauses. The extracts illustrate these functions for silent pauses: as word-finding; as planning at word, phrase, and narrative component levels; and as pragmatic compensation as other interactional and narrative skills decrease.
ISSN:1533-3175
1938-2731
DOI:10.1177/1533317508328138