The language of dementia science and the science of dementia language: linguistic interpretations of an interdisciplinary research field

Wray, Alison ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2144-4458 2017. The language of dementia science and the science of dementia language: linguistic interpretations of an interdisciplinary research field. Journal of Language and Social Psychology 36 (1) , pp. 80-95. 10.1177/0261927X16663591

Preview

PDF - Accepted Post-Print Version Available under License Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives. Download (398kB) | Preview

Abstract

Language is a balance of precision and flexibility, and scientific dialogue across disciplines faces challenges in how terms are used and how phenomena, including language itself, are described and explained. Taking dementia as its focus, this article offers linguistic perspectives on causes of inherent difficulty with terminological exactness. Attention is paid to the interface between the positivist imperatives of clinical evaluation and the relativist interpretations that help make sense of uses of terms across contexts. Two types of reason are examined for why the language produced by people with dementia is sometimes hard to characterize and predict: the theoretical challenges inherent in analyzing the language of dementia and the social variables that affect how that language is manifested. The article concludes with the vision of linguistic research using corpus-based discourse analysis to underpin and catalyze communication-bridging activities in interdisciplinary projects, within and beyond the dementia context

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	English, Communication and Philosophy
Subjects:	P Language and Literature > P Philology. Linguistics
Uncontrolled Keywords:	dementia, interdisciplinarity, terminology, language, communication
Additional Information:	Released with a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives License (CC BY-NC-ND)
Publisher:	SAGE
ISSN:	0261-927X
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	9 June 2016
Date of Acceptance:	18 July 2016
Last Modified:	07 Nov 2023 04:34
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/91649

Citation Data

Cited 8 times in Scopus. View in Scopus. Powered By Scopus® Data

Actions (repository staff only)

Edit Item