Communicative functions of automatic speech in non-fluent dysphasia

Abstract

Communicative functions of automatic speech were examined for four acute non-fluent dysphasic subjects and four matched, non-aphasic controls were examined. Verbal output was elicited using different contexts and conversational partners: picture description, dyads, and triads. Results revealed that dysphasic subjects produced a significantly greater number of automatic utterances, primarily representative of recurring utterances, and that they were revised frequently by the dysphasic subjects. Relative to the analysed communicative function categories, the data revealed significant differences between the two groups for the speech act category of ‘answer’ and for the discourse strategy of ‘conversational repair’. Discussions relate to establishing the similarities and dissimilarities between the two groups in their use of automatic speech for communication; the linguistic characteristics of automatic speech; and the effect of paralinguistic variables and context.