Article published In: Pragmatics & Cognition
Vol. 23:2 (2016) ► pp.324–342
Pragmatic function impairment and Alzheimer’s dementia
Published online: 20 July 2017
https://doi.org/10.1075/pc.23.2.07sch
https://doi.org/10.1075/pc.23.2.07sch
Pragmatic competence includes the capacity to express illocutionary force and successfully achieve perlocutionary effects, in order to guarantee fully functional communication exchanges. Alzheimer’s Disease is characterized by a constellation of limitations derived from progressive cognitive impairment, which is usually viewed as a global uniform phenomenon. In this paper it is argued that looking independently at the loss and recovery of pragmatic function related to illocutionary and perlocutionary abilities can be a productive way of understanding the progressive deterioration of communicative capacities by patients or their improvement under targeted treatment.
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