Bedtime Soliloquies and Linguistic Competence in Autism

1977 ◽  
Vol 42 (3) ◽  
pp. 376-393 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christiane A M. Baltaxe ◽  
James Q. Simmons
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Language Development ◽  
Autistic Child ◽  
Diagnostic Tool ◽  
Normal Child ◽  
Linguistic Competence ◽  
Language Training ◽  
Connected Discourse ◽  
Linguistic Strategies ◽  
Autistic Subject

This study investigates the linguistic competence of an autistic child by means of her bedtime soliloquies. It suggests the usefulness of such monologues as a diagnostic tool and addresses the question of the interrelationship between echolalia and language development. Three bedtime soliloquies of an eight-year-old echolalic autistic child are analyzed along the dimensions of echolalia versus prepositional speech, types of ungrammatically produced, and analysis of connected discourse. The results are compared with those of a normal child reported earlier in the literature. The present analysis demonstrates the difficulties in the judgment of prepositional versus echolalic speech. The types of ungrammaticality were found to be useful indicators of apparent differences between the acquisition process in the normal and the autistic child. They revealed that the autistic child may use specific linguistic strategies only minimally utilized by the normal child. The discourse analysis points up additional differences as well as similarities in the way the autistic subject organizes her utterances in connected discourse. It also shows that the autistic child has specific but limited linguistic competence. It is hypothesized that the autistic subject acquires more functional, useful language by a process of gradually breaking down echolalic patterns. In terms of therapy, these findings would support the use of echolalia as a basis for language training.

scholarly journals Perspectives on contextual vulnerability in discourses of climate conflict

2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 89-102 ◽  
Author(s):  
U. T. Okpara ◽  
L. C. Stringer ◽  
A. J. Dougill
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Diagnostic Tool ◽  
Human Security ◽  
Constructivist Theory ◽  
Discursive Formation ◽  
Wide Range

Abstract. The science of climate security and conflict is replete with controversies. Yet the increasing vulnerability of politically fragile countries to the security consequences of climate change is widely acknowledged. Although climate conflict reflects a continuum of conditional forces that coalesce around the notion of vulnerability, how different portrayals of vulnerability influence the discursive formation of climate conflict relations remains an exceptional but under-researched issue. This paper combines a systematic discourse analysis with a vulnerability interpretation diagnostic tool to explore (i) how discourses of climate conflict are constructed and represented, (ii) how vulnerability is communicated across discourse lines, and (iii) the strength of contextual vulnerability against a deterministic narrative of scarcity-induced conflict, such as that pertaining to land. Systematically characterising climate conflict discourses based on the central issues constructed, assumptions about mechanistic relationships, implicit normative judgements and vulnerability portrayals, provides a useful way of understanding where discourses differ. While discourses show a wide range of opinions "for" and "against" climate conflict relations, engagement with vulnerability has been less pronounced – except for the dominant context centrism discourse concerned about human security (particularly in Africa). In exploring this discourse, we observe an increasing sense of contextual vulnerability that is oriented towards a concern for complexity rather than predictability. The article concludes by illustrating that a turn towards contextual vulnerability thinking will help advance a constructivist theory-informed climate conflict scholarship that recognises historicity, specificity, and variability as crucial elements of contextual totalities of any area affected by climate conflict.

scholarly journals Aproximación al fracaso escolar de alumnado en desventaja desde el análisis crítico del discurso

2019 ◽  
Vol 27 ◽  
pp. 49
Author(s):  
Ignacio Calderón Almendros ◽  
Olga Cruz Moya ◽  
María Teresa Rascón Gómez
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Academic Failure ◽  
Qualitative Approach ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Educational Institutions ◽  
Social Actors ◽  
Linguistic Strategies ◽  
Semiotic Perspective ◽  
Primary Groups

This article arises from a biographical qualitative approach with students in situation of socio-cultural disadvantage who suffer academic failure. Its aim is to explore the language used by these children from the perspective of critical discourse analysis, as well as to analyze the linguistic strategies chosen in representing social actors and actions, and linguistic-discursive features. In addition, speakers create a more strengthened discourse of their own group from a semiotic perspective, as opposed to the hierarchy and depersonalization in their relationships with the educational institutions. The distance between the language of school requests and the language they use within their primary groups favors failure and isolation.

Rites of rivalry

2002 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-106 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcel Bax
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Characteristic Feature ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Indirect Communication ◽  
Significant Issue ◽  
Primary Stage ◽  
Linguistic Communication ◽  
Modern Times ◽  
Linguistic Strategies ◽  
Over Time

The indirect conveyance of functional meaning is a conspicuous and thoroughly studied characteristic of contemporary linguistic practice. Even so, in addition to seeming “something natural” indirect language use appears to be a universally spread phenomenon, and both factors may have caused students in the fields of pragmatics and discourse analysis to generally overlook the significant issue of whether or not indirectness was a characteristic feature of earlier forms of linguistic communication as well and, if such is the case, how in bygone eras non-literal meanings were imparted. The overall lack of historical and diachronic perspectives on indirect language use implies that there are to date no theories explaining its origin and development over time. In this article, I shall argue that currently prevailing modes such as conventional and inferential indirectness are historically speaking rather recent innovations, and that in pre-modern times indirect pragmatic meaning was established in a markedly different fashion. Taking the mediaeval pre-combat dialogue and some of its earlier manifestations as my focal material, I will try to establish that ritual interaction, more particularly the time-honoured altercation rite, marks a primary stage in the development of indirect communication. Considering the conceptual links between ritual behaviour and indirect language use, I will contend that oral ritual is a precursor of the now prevailing linguistic strategies for being indirect.

“They cowardly attack US, so we nobly eliminate them…”

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 292-315
Author(s):  
Cristina Mayor-Goicoechea ◽  
Jesús Romero-Trillo
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Special Reference ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Corpus Linguistics ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Islamic State ◽  
The People ◽  
Linguistic Strategies

Abstract The threat of the Islamic State is realised both in its attacks and its discourse. To illustrate the role of linguistic threats, the present study investigates the ISIS online propaganda magazine Dabiq by combining Critical Discourse Analysis and Corpus Linguistics (Romero-Trillo 2008; Baker et al. 2008). Following the two groups described by van Dijk (2003), which are represented by the in-group (ISIS) and the out-group (against ISIS), we propose a third element: the translocal group (i.e., the people in between). The results show the substantial presence of linguistic strategies enhanced by Dangerous Speech (Benesch 2013) to create a high segregation between the groups. Also, the analysis shows the inextricable relationship between conflict and dangerous language and the need to investigate this link further, with special reference to the polarisation of the groups and to the subsequent escalation of violence in discourse.

scholarly journals Considerações sobre o Desenvolvimento da Linguagem em Criança Autista / Considerations on Language Development in Autistic Child

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (57) ◽  
pp. 347-357
Author(s):  
Aurenia Pereira de França ◽  
Mitécia Raquel Rodrigues Castelo Branco Sampaio
Keyword(s):  
Language Development ◽  
Autistic Child

Resumo: O autismo é um distúrbio de socialização de início precoce, cujas características aparecem desde os primeiros anos de vida da criança, afetando as áreas de interação social, de comunicação e comportamental. Assim, sabendo-se que a comunicação de crianças autistas possui peculiaridades e não segue o mesmo padrão observado em crianças normais, o presente estudo tem por objetivo discorrer acerca do desenvolvimento da linguagem em crianças autistas. Para tanto, a metodologia escolhida foi a revisão de literatura realizada em livros e artigos disponíveis em meio físico e eletrônico, cujos resultados são apresentados em forma de tópicos, onde inicialmente são traçadas algumas considerações gerais sobre o autismo e a linguagem, para ao seu final tratar da questão aquisição da linguagem pela criança autista.

scholarly journals Persuasive language of responsible organisation? A critical discourse analysis of corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports of Nigerian oil companies

2019 ◽  
Vol 32 (8) ◽  
pp. 2395-2420 ◽  
Author(s):  
Uzoechi Nwagbara ◽  
Ataur Belal
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Communication Studies ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Oil Companies ◽  
Csr Reporting ◽  
Linguistic Strategies ◽  
Micro Level ◽  
Corporate Social

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate how language (choice) in CSR reports of leading oil companies in Nigeria is used to portray an image of “responsible organisation”. Design/methodology/approach This paper draws insights from communication studies (persuasion theory) and critical discourse analysis (CDA) studies to discursively unpack all those subtle and visible, yet equally invisible, linguistic strategies (micro-level elements): wording (single words), phrases and chains of words (clauses/sentences). These linguistic strategies (micro-level elements) proxy organisational discourses (meso-level elements), which are reflective of wider social practices (macro-level elements). The authors base the investigation on CSR reports of six leading oil companies in Nigeria from 2009 to 2012. Findings The findings of this study reveal that (leading) Nigerian oil companies linguistically use CSR reports to persuasively construct and portray the image of “responsible organisation” in the eyes of wider stakeholders (the communities) despite serious criticism of their corporate (ir) responsibility. Originality/value As opposed to the previous content analysis based studies, this paper contributes to the emerging stream of CDA studies on CSR reporting by providing a finer-grained linguistic analytical schema couched in Fairclough’s (2003) approach to CDA (and persuasion theory). This helps to unravel how persuasive language/discourse of responsible organisation is enacted and reproduced. The authors thus respond to the calls for theoretical plurality in CSR reporting research by introducing persuasion theory from communication studies literature which has hitherto been rarely applied.

TV Editorials and Elections

2014 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 255-283
Author(s):  
Dima Dabbous
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Election Law ◽  
Parliamentary Elections ◽  
Evening News ◽  
News Reports ◽  
Linguistic Strategies ◽  
News Bulletin ◽  
Event Based

According to Article 68 of election law no. 25/2008, the Lebanese media must ensure that standards of fairness, balance and impartiality among candidates are guaranteed. The challenge for national television stations in the months leading up to election day on 7 June 2009 was to comply with the law not just in their ‘factual’ news reports but mostly in the popular editorial opening segment of their newscast which, by definition, is subjective. This leads to the question: how did the TV stations manage this contradiction inherent in the structure and nature of their evening news bulletin when covering parliamentary elections in 2009? To what extent could they actually be impartial in a hybrid genre (TV news editorial) that, by definition, also required them to express confessional/party-specific views on a major, divisive national event? Based on the literature of critical discourse analysis, I argue in this paper that for the most part they did this discursively, by relying heavily on a number of linguistic strategies, specifically implicitness/ambiguity and intertextuality. By doing so, they sought to mask their bias for or against candidates and parliamentary alliances and avoid possible penalties by the recently established electoral monitoring body (the SCEC).

scholarly journals Language Use and Discoursal Strategies in Peer Religious Mentoring

2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Phyllis Ghim Lian Chew
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Conversation Analysis ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Language Choice ◽  
Code Switching ◽  
Group Support ◽  
Theoretical Frameworks ◽  
Linguistic Strategies

This paper focuses on language use and discoursal strategies in an Islamic boys camp and draws from theoretical frameworks such as the ethnography of speaking, conversation analysis and discourse analysis as a means to examine the phenomena of religious mentoring and socialization.   The article found that mentees were socialized through senior peers’ linguistic strategies such as language choice and code-switching and discoursal strategies such as humor, mock-demonstrations  – all of which played a major role in building solidarity, group support and brotherly bonding.

scholarly journals La comunicazione di Matteo Salvini durante la pandemia: l’immigrazione e la delegittimazione dell’avversario politico

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dario Lucchesi
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Qualitative Analysis ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
National Identities ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Leader ◽  
Negative Campaigning ◽  
Discursive Strategies ◽  
Linguistic Strategies

Following the critical discourse analysis approach, this article intends to highlight how the anti-immigration perspective is (re)produced within the Facebook page of the Italian political leader Matteo Salvini during the pandemic scenario between March 2020–March 2021. Quantitative and qualitative analysis have been applied to Salvini’s posts and users’ comments aiming at identifying the linguistic strategies that contribute to instrumentalizing the emergency and aim to reinforce the process of “securitization” of national borders as well as the re-legitimation of national identities. Findings suggest that the main discursive strategies used by the political leader do not include migrants as a danger for the spread of the virus. Rather, Salvini systematically organized the migratory narration on negative campaigning blaming political opponents and recontextualized the moralization of borders. The contribution helps to reveal how the anti-migration discourse is reproduced during the COVID-19 outbreak and how the politicization of the migration serves as a context for the normalization of migrant’s exclusion.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document