Discourse Ability and Brain Damage: Theoretical and Empirical Perspectives

270 Pages·1990·5.82 MB·English

by  Richard Patry

SPRINGER SERIES IN NEUROPSYCHOLOGY
Harry A. Whitaker, Series Editor
Springer Series in Neuropsychology
Harry A. Whitaker, Series Editor
Phonological Processes and Brain Mechanisms
H.A. Whitaker (Ed.)
Contemporary Reviews in Neuropsychology
H.A. Whitaker (Ed.)
Neuropsychological Studies of Non/ocal Brain Damage: Dementia and Trauma
H.A. Whitaker (Ed.)
Linguistic Analyses of Aphasic Language
w.u.
Dressler and lA. Stark (Eds.)
Synethesia: A Union of the Senses
R. E. Cytowic
Discourse Ability and Brain Damage: Theoretical and Empirical Perspectives
Y. Joanette and H.H. Brownell (Eds.)
Yves Joanette Hiram H. Brownell
Editors
Discourse Ability and
Brain Damage
Theoretical and Empirical Perspectives
With 17 Illustrations
Springer-Verlag
New York Berlin Heidelberg
London Paris Tokyo Hong Kong
Yves Joanette, Ph.D. Hiram Brownell, Ph.D.
Centre de Recherche Department of Psychology
Centre hospitalier Cote-des-Neiges Boston College
Montreal, Quebec H3W lW5 Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts 02167
Canada USA
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Discourse ability and brain damage : theoretical and empirical
perspectives I Yves Joanette and Hiram H. Brownell, editors.
p. cm. - (Springer series in neuropsychology)
Includes index.
1. Aphasia. 2. Brain damage-Complications and sequelae.
3. Discourse analysis. I. Joanette, Yves II. Brownell, Hiram.
III. Series.
[DNLM: 1. Brain Damage, Chronic-complications. 2. Brain
Injuries-complications. 3. Language Disorders.
4. Neuropsychology 5. Psycholinguistics. 6. Speech Disorders.
WL 340 D6045]
RC425.D57 1989
616.85'52-dc20
DNLMIDLC 89-11430
Printed on acid-free paper.
© 1990 by Springer-Verlag New York Inc.
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1990
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Typeset by Publishers Service, Bozeman, Montana.
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
ISBN-13: 978-1-4612-7939-6 e-ISBN-13: 978-1-4612-3262-9
DOl: 10.1007/978-1-4612-3262-9
Foreword
Nonspecialists are often surprised by the issues studied and the perspectives
assumed by basic scientific researchers. Nowhere has the surprise traditionally
been greater than in the field of psychology. College students anticipate that their
psychology courses will illuminate their personal problems and their friends' per
sonalities; they are nonplussed to discover that the perception of geometric forms
and the running ofT-mazes dominates the textbooks. The situation is comparable
in the domain of linguistics. Nonprofessional observers assume that linguists
study exotic languages, that when they choose to focus on their own language,
they will examine the meanings of utterances and the uses to which language is
put. Such onlookers are taken aback to learn that the learning of remote languages
is a marginal activity for most linguists; they are equally amazed to discover that
the lion's share of work in the discipline focuses on issues of syntax and phonol
ogy, which are virtually invisible to the speaker of a language.
Science moves in its own, often mysterious ways, and there are perfectly good
reasons why experimental psychologists prefer to look at mazes rather than at
madness, and why linguists study syntax rather than Sanskrit. Nonetheless, it is
a happy event for all concerned when the interests of professionals and non
specialists begin to move toward one another and a field of study comes to
address the "big questions" as well as the experimentally most tractable ones.
Discourse Ability and Brain Damage reflects this trend in scientific research.
A decade or two ago, that odd breed of researchers called psycholinguists was
devoting its efforts to those topics that, however fascinating to a professional
researcher, would have seemed hopelessly arcane to the layperson. During the
last several years, however, researchers in psychology and language have taken as
their concern problems of language that adhere much more closely to a "common
sense" understanding of this domain. And so, for the first time in the modern era,
one encounters serious scientific workers who are concerned with stories, jokes,
conversations, figurative language-more broadly, with the domain of discourse.
Analogous trends have touched the neurosciences as well. Although never
quite so exclusively fixated on the colorless building blocks of language, neuro
psychologists and neurolinguists had, in past decades, ignored most of the larger
topics and problems of language. Yet in conjunction with-and in some cases
VI Foreword
even ahead of-their colleagues in cognate disciplines, neuropsychologists have
begun to study the fate of discourse capacities under conditions of brain damage.
What a rich harvest they have reaped! Counter to what basic teachings implied,
it is the right cerebral hemisphere that seems especially predisposed to deal with
linguistic communication above the level of the sentence. Aphasic patients with
left (or dominant)-hemisphere damage often show surprisingly preserved abili
ties to deal with specimens of discourse. In contrast, right-hemisphere-damaged
patients exhibit significant, and often enduring, problems in apprehending texts
and, more generally, in "getting the point" of a narrative.
Going beyond this striking dissociation among linguistic functions across the
two cerebral hemispheres, the authors represented in this collection inform us in
many ways. I doubt that many prospective readers can already distinguish
between cohesion and coherence in a text, outline forms of the mutual knowledge
that speakers and hearers must share; review various representations of dis
course and the operations habitually performed on them; distinguish among the
levels of hierarchy involved in different kinds of mnemonic and narrative
representations; describe the connections, as well as the disjunctions, between
production and perception of discourse; analyze the linguistic productions that
distinguish aphasics, polylinguals, Alzheimer's patients, and patients who have
sustained right hemisphere disease; and anticipate the kinds of differences in dis
course that might characterize individuals of different social classes or gender.
And yet, readers who carefully read this book will gradually attain an expert's
level of understanding of the topics at hand.
What does one look for in a collection of articles in neuropsychology? At the
very least, one hopes to receive a state-of-the-art report from some of the leaders
in the respective fields. If one is more fortunate, these articles will be written in
a clear voice, without jargon, and will make explicit the links to past work and to
work in other laboratories and research traditions. And, if one is more fortunate
still, the collection will strike a proper balance among theoretical work in the
area, experimental studies, and clinical applications even as the innovative
research will engage in a dialogue with the informing theory.
Readers of this volume can count themselves lucky. Dr. Joanette and Dr.
Brownell have included in their survey the relevant populations, the most articu
lated theories, and the proper methods of investigation. They have assembled a
provocative set of articles, each one interesting in itself; taken together, these
essays describe-indeed, define-a new area of study. As happens in an effective
specimen of discourse, the whole is indeed greater than the sum of the individual
chapters.
I am confident that seasoned researchers will feel edified by this compendium
and that newcomers to the field will be stimulated to carry out further studies that
will, in rapid course, dictate a need for a second edition.
Boston Veterans Administration Medical Center Howard Gardner
Boston University School of Medicine
Harvard Graduate School of Education
Contents
Foreword.......................................................... v
Contributors .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi
Introduction ....................................................... xiii
Section 1: T heoretical Perspectives
Chapter 1 Discourse Analysis in Linguistics: Historical
and Theoretical Background. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
RICHARD PATRY and JEAN-Luc NESPOULOUS
Historical Background: Discourse and the Prevailing Approaches
to Language Analysis in Linguistics .......................... 3
The Emergence of Discourse as a Field of Inquiry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Discourse Analysis and Neurolinguistics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Chapter 2 The Psycholinguistics of Discourse Comprehension . . . . . . . . . 28
GREGORY L. MURPHY
General Principles ........................................ 29
Specific Topics ..................................... . . . . . . 37
Morals and Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Chapter 3 Text Analysis: Macro- and Microstructural Aspects of
Discourse Processing .................................... 50
ERNEST F. MROSS
Propositional Representations .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
The Kintsch and van Dijk Model. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Conclusions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
viii Contents
Chapter 4 The Cognitive Representation and Processing of Discourse:
Function and Dysfunction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
CARL H. FREDERIKSEN, ROBERT 1. BRACEWELL,
ALAIN BREULEUX, and ANDRE RENAUD
Discourse Comprehension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Discourse Production . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Methods for Studying Discourse Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Section 2: Empirical Perspectives
Chapter 5 Discourse Comprehension by Right-Hemisphere
Stroke Patients: Deficits of Prediction and Revision. . . . . . . .. 113
RAYMOND MOLLOY, HIRAM H. BROWNELL,
and HOWARD GARDNER
Stroke and Its Aftermath ................................... 113
Indirect Requests and Verbal Irony ........................... 115
Verbal Irony ............................................. 119
Jokes and Inference Revision. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 121
Jokes ................................................... 121
Inference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 124
Discourse Deficits in the Context of Other Research. . . . . . . . . . . .. 125
Chapter 6 Narrative Discourse in Right-Brain-Damaged
Right-Handers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 131
YVES JOANETTE and PIERRE GOULET
General Methodology. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 132
General Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 149
Chapter 7 Text Comprehension and Production in Aphasia: Analysis
in Terms of Micro- and Macrostructure. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 154
WALTER HUBER
Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 154
Text-Picture Matching. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 156
Comprehension of Metaphorical Idioms. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 159
Verbal Description of Cartoon Stories. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 169
Conclusions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 176
Chapter 8 Narrative and Procedural Discourse in Aphasia. . . . . . . . . . . .. 180
HANNA K. ULATOWSKA, LEE ALLARD,
and SANDRA BOND CHAPMAN
Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 180
Perspectives on Discourse Genre . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 181
Review of Research. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 182
Contents ix
Interpretation of Results. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 188
Extensions of Discourse Studies .................... . . . . . . .. 192
Epilogue ............................................... 194
Chapter 9 Discourse Ability in Children after Brain Damage. . . . . . . .. 199
MAUREEN DENNIS and MAUREEN W. LOVETT
The Study of Discourse ................................... 199
Why Study Discourse in Brain-Damaged Children? . . . . . . . . . . . .. 200
Representing Discourse Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 200
Discourse Analysis Methods and Applications. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 204
Current Applications of Discourse Procedures
to Brain-Damaged Children . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 206
Potential Applications of Discourse Procedures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 215
Issues on Which Early Brain-Damaged Discourse
Processing Data Bear . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216
Chapter 10 Discourse Abilities and Deficits in
Multilingual Dementia. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 224
SUSAN DE SANTI, LORAINE K. OBLER, HELENE SABO-ABRAMSON,
and JOAN GOLDBERGER
Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 224
Literature Review. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 225
Description of Cases. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 226
Procedure .............................................. 227
Methods ............................................... 227
Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 229
Discussion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 233
Chapter 11 Gender-Specific Discourse Differences in Aphasia ....... " 236
WOLFGANG U. DRESSLER, RUTH WODAK, and CSABA PLl~H
Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 236
Speech Samples. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 239
Analytic Scheme. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 239
Statistical Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240
Discussion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 242
Author Index. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 247
Subject Index ...................................................... 255
Contributors
LEE ALLARD The State University of New Jersey Rutgers, Center for Molecular
& Behavioral Neuroscience, Newark, New Jersey 07101, USA
ROBERT 1. BRACEWELL Laboratory of Applied Cognitive Science, and Depart
ment of Educational Psychology, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec
H3A 1Y 2, Canada
ALAIN BREULEUX Laboratory of Applied Cognitive Science, and Department of
Educational Psychology, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec H3A 1Y 2, Canada
HIRAM H. BROWNELL* Department of Psychology, Boston College, Chestnut
Hill, Massachusetts 02167, USA; Boston V.A. Medical Center, Boston, Mas
sachusetts 02130, USA; Aphasia Research Center, Department of Neurology,
Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA
SANDRA BOND CHAPMAN University of Texas at Dallas, Callier Center for
Communication Disorders, Dallas, Texas 75235, USA
MAUREEN DENNIS Psychology Department, The Hospital for Sick Children,
Toronto, Ontario M5G lX8, Canada
WOLFGANG U. DRESSLER Department of Linguistics, University of Vienna,
A-I090 Vienna, Austria
CARL FREDERIKSEN Laboratory of Applied Cognitive Science, and Department
of Educational Psychology, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec H3A 1Y 2,
Canada
HOWARD GARDNER Boston V.A. Medical Center, Boston, Massachusetts
02130, USA; Aphasia Research Center, Department of Neurology, Boston
University School of Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA; Project
Zero, Longfellow Hall, Harvard School of Education, Cambridge, Massachusetts
02138, USA
JOAN GOLDBERGER The Parker Jewish Geriatric Institute, New Hyde Park, New
York 11042, USA
*Editor.