LINGUIST List 13.1179

Mon Apr 29 2002

Diss: Psycholing: Meilijson "Aspects of..."

Editor for this issue: Karolina Owczarzak <karolinalinguistlist.org>

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1. sara, Psycholing: Meilijson "Aspects of the theory of Core, Central and..."

New Dissertation Abstract

Institution: Tel-Aviv University
Program: School of Cultural Studies, Faculty of Humanities
Dissertation Status: Completed
Degree Date: 1999

Author: Sara Meilijson 

Dissertation Title: 
Aspects of the theory of Core, Central and Interface Pragmatics in the
Language of Chronic Schizophrenics

Linguistic Field: 
Pragmatics, Philosophy of Language, Neurolinguistics

Dissertation Director 1: Asa Kasher
Dissertation Director 2: Avner Elizur


Dissertation Abstract: 

Language disorder has long been considered a diagnostic indicator of
Schizophrenia. This study examines the language of 43 patients
diagnosed with chronic Schizophrenia, from the theoretical framework
of modular Pragmatics of language as described by Kasher.

A review of the literature shows that the study of language and
Schizophrenia underwent a paradigmatic shift similar to the study of
normal language, from the level of word units through sentence
cohesion and finally to the level of Pragamtics of language - speech
acts in particular - and to the discourse unit. The modularity of
pragmatic knowledge hypothesis is applied to describe some types of
pragamatic knowledge and explain how each type is manifested in the
schizophrenic speaker/hearer.

Two tools of assessment where chosen to test the pragmatic abilities
of the 43 experimental chronic schizophrenic subjects, mixed anxiety
depression control subjects, brain hemispheric damage comparison
subjects and normal subjects. (i) The Pragamtic protocol of Prutting
and Kirchner was chosen as the method of analysis to attain a general
profile of pragmatic abilities. (ii) A Neuropragmatic Battery of tests
was developed based on Kasher's theory of modular Pragmatics. These
tests assess verbal and non-verbal Basic Speech Acts and
Conversational Implicatures.