Language and Neurology

This book questions the relationship and compatibility between current beliefs in neurology and contemporary textual linguistic theories, interpretative semantics and discourse analysis.

It begins with a critical examination of the screenings for Alzheimer�s type dementia through cognitive testing, particularly screenings where language is used. It then analyzes the various linguistic properties (morphological, syntactic and semantic) of the speech of Alzheimer�s patients, which can be troubling for both caregivers and their environment in general.

More than a synthesis of critical linguistic reflections, Language and Neurology provokes a fruitful reflection through adjustments suggested by the acquired knowledge of textual semantics.

Acknowledgments vii

Introduction ix

Chapter 1. Linguistics, Language Pathologies and Alzheimer’s Disease: A Brief History 1

1.1. Gagnepain’s theory of mediation: an approach to pathological speech on its own terms 2

1.2. “Looking for help from linguistics”: other (rare) resources 10

Chapter 2. Alzheimer’s Disease: General Symptoms and Language Impairments 17

2.1. General symptoms 18

2.2. Language-related problems 25

Chapter 3. Cognitive Testing: The Key to Diagnosing Memory Pathologies 31

3.1. Definitions of psychometric tests 31

3.2. Test types 34

3.3. Intelligence tests: a starting point 35

3.4. The mysterious test 38

3.5. Postulates on verbal language in cognitive testing 39

3.6. Verbal and non-verbal cognitive tests 43

3.6.1. Non-verbal tests 44

3.6.2. Basic verbal tests: naming, designation and matching 48

3.6.3. Tests using idiomatic expressions 54

3.6.4. Barbizet’s test: “The Lion’s Tale” 58

3.7. Tests and context(s) 66

3.8. Absence of a cultural dimension in cognitive testing 70

3.8.1. First-generation North African patients in France 70

3.8.2. Erasure of Czech/Slovak cultural disparities 71

3.8.3. Connecting cognition and culture: origins and perspectives 72

3.9. Summary: rewriting tests 73

Chapter 4. Analyzing the Speech of Alzheimer’s Patients: Methods and Perspectives 79

4.1. An eclectic range of approaches 79

4.2. Patient–physician dialog and autobiographies: microsemantic analysis 89

4.3. Analyzing patient discourse: perspectives 106

4.3.1. Recursion, circularity and sequences: finding meaning through analysis grids 106

4.3.2. A multi-channel approach 113

4.3.3. Confabulations: “from minor distortion to bizarre tales”17 117

Conclusion 129

Appendices 135

Appendix 1. Interview Transcriptions: The Lion’s Tale Test 137

Appendix 2. English Translations for Chapter 4 159

References 165

Index 173

Christophe Cusimano is Professor of French linguistics and a member of the Prague Linguistic Circle. He teaches and conducts his research in semantics at the Institute of Romanticism of the Masaryk University in Brno, Czech Republic.