Duong Anh, Tardif Andréanne, Ska Bernadette
Ecole d'orthophonie et d'audiologie, Faculté de Médecine, Université de Montréal, Centre de recherche, Institut universitaire de gériatrie de Montréal, Canada.
Brain Cogn. 2003 Nov;53(2):177-80. doi: 10.1016/s0278-2626(03)00104-0.
Discourse about discourse or a subject's comments about his/her performance during a discourse task can be defined as modalizing discourse (discours modalisateur; [Nespoulous, 1980]; [Nespoulous et al., 1998]). Since it does not convey the expected content of the discourse task (referential discourse), modalizing discourse has often been considered non-informative, and as such, has received little interest. The present study investigated the modalizing aspect of discourse production and its evolution in Alzheimer's disease (AD). Five AD patients produced a picture-induced narrative across five consecutive assessments. Two measures were derived: the modalizing/referential ratio (M/R ratio) and the percentage of repeated ideas. Results revealed that, compared to a group of 27 normal controls matched for age and education, AD patients: (1) obtained higher M/R ratios that tended to diminish as the number of assessments increased, and (2) produced higher percentages of repeated ideas throughout all assessments. These results suggest that modalizing discourse makes up a large proportion of AD patients' discourse and should be included in further studies to accurately describe their discourse behavior. The implications of modalizing discourse on preserved pragmatic abilities and its inclusion in comprehensive management programs of AD patients are discussed.
关于话语的论述或一个人在话语任务中对其自身表现的评论可被定义为模态化话语（模态化话语；[内斯普卢斯，1980]；[内斯普卢斯等人，1998]）。由于它没有传达话语任务的预期内容（指称性话语），模态化话语常常被认为是无信息价值的，因此很少受到关注。本研究调查了话语产生的模态化方面及其在阿尔茨海默病（AD）中的演变。五名AD患者在连续五次评估中生成了由图片引发的叙述。得出了两项指标：模态化/指称性比率（M/R比率）和重复观点的百分比。结果显示，与一组年龄和教育程度相匹配的27名正常对照者相比，AD患者：（1）获得了更高的M/R比率，且该比率倾向于随着评估次数的增加而降低，以及（2）在所有评估中产生的重复观点的百分比更高。这些结果表明，模态化话语在AD患者的话语中占很大比例，应纳入进一步研究以准确描述他们的话语行为。讨论了模态化话语对保留的语用能力的影响及其在AD患者综合管理方案中的纳入情况。
