Pragmatic Impairment

Demonstrates how our understanding of pragmatics can be informed by the study of speech disorders.

Michael Perkins (Author)

9780521790703, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 13 December 2007

244 pages
23.4 x 15.6 x 2 cm, 0.516 kg

'… this is an important book on both pragmatics and on pragmatic impairment, and will be of use to those interested in broadening their theoretical knowledge as well as providing a sound basis for clinical practitioners … this is quite an achievement and it deserves to be read by all interested in pragmatics.' Journal of Child Language

Pragmatics - the way we communicate using more than just language - is particularly problematic for people with speech disorders. Through an extensive analysis of how pragmatics can go wrong, this 2007 book not only provides a clinically useful account of pragmatic impairment, but it also throws light on how pragmatics functions in healthy individuals. Michael Perkins brings mainstream and clinical pragmatics together by showing that not only can our understanding of pragmatics be aided by the study of pragmatic impairment, but that clinical and theoretical pragmatics are better served by treating pragmatic ability and disability within a single framework. It is a comprehensive book aimed primarily at linguists and psycholinguists rather than clinicians, and includes illustrative material on conditions such as autism and aphasia and a wide range of other communication disorders in both children and adults.

List of figures
List of table
Acknowledgements
Transcription conventions
1. Introduction
2. Pragmatic theory and pragmatic impairment
3. Pragmatics and modularity: components, dissociations and associations
4. Pragmatic ability and disability: an emergentist model
5. Cognition and pragmatics
6. Language and pragmatics
7. Sensorimotor systems and pragmatics
8. Compensatory adaptation
9. Conclusions
Appendix
References
Index.

Subject Areas: Cognition & cognitive psychology [JMR], Psycholinguistics [CFD], Linguistics [CF]