Speakership Asymmetry During Topic Talk Involving a Person with Aphasia
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/jircd.v3i1.27Keywords:
aphasia, Conversation Analysis, topic, functional communicationAbstract
This paper uses Conversation Analysis to investigate the organisation of topic talk during interactions involving a person with aphasia (Valerie). Approximately three and a half hours of everyday conversation between Valerie and her conversation partners was collected and analysed. It was found that Valerie’s conversation partners took on primary speakership more often during topic talk, and held the floor for longer periods of time. It is argued that this pattern was the product of weak alignment with Valerie’s topic talk initiations, trouble that arose during Valerie’s extended turns, and Valerie’s promotion of speakership for her conversation partners. These observations point towards the importance of conversation partners’ conduct in promoting the success of extended turns produced by people with aphasia. Finally, it is suggested that the findings of interaction-focused research can help specify and expand notions of functional communication.
References
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Gardner, R. (2001). When Listeners Talk: Response Tokens and Listener Stance. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Co.
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Helasvuo, M., Laakso, M. and Sorjonen, M. (2004). Searching for words: Syntactic and sequential construction of word search in conversations of Finnish speakers with aphasia. Research on Language & Social Interaction 37 (1): 1–37. http://dx.doi.org/10.1207/s15327973rlsi3701_1
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Jefferson, G. (1978). Sequential aspects of storytelling in conversation. In J. Schenkein (ed.) Studies in the Organization of Conversational Interaction, 219–248. New York: Academic Press.
Kertesz, A. (2006). The Western Aphasia Battery – Revised. San Antonio, TX: PsychCorp.
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Sacks, H. (1992). Lectures on Conversation (Vols. 1 and 2). Cambridge: Blackwell.
Schegloff, E. A. (1982). Discourse as an interactional achievement: Some uses of ‘uh huh’ and other things that come between sentences. In D. Tannen (ed.) Analyzing Discourse: Text and Talk, 71–93. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.
Schegloff, E. A. (1990). On the organization of sequences as a source of coherence in talkin-interaction. In B. Dorval (ed.) Conversational Organization and its Development, 51–77. Norwood, MA: Ablex.
Schegloff, E. A. (1996). Turn organization: One intersection of grammar and interaction. In E. Ochs, E. A. Schegloff and S. A. Thompson (eds) Interaction and Grammar, 52–133. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Schegloff, E. A. (2006). Interaction: The infrastructure for social institutions, the natural ecological niche for language and the arena in which culture is enacted. In N. J. Enfield and S. C. Levinson (eds) Roots of Human Sociality: Culture, Cognition and Interaction, 70–96. London: Berg.
Schegloff, E. A. (2007). Sequence Organization in Interaction: A Primer in Conversation Analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511791208
Schegloff, E. A. and Sacks, H. (1973). Opening up closings. Semiotica 8 (4): 289–327. http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/semi.1973.8.4.289
Schegloff, E. A., Jefferson, G. and Sacks, H. (1977). The preference for self-correction in the organization of repair in conversation. Language 53 (2): 361–382. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/413107
Selting, M. (2000). The construction of units in conversational talk. Language in Society 29 (4): 477–517. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0047404500004012
Simmons-Mackie, N. N. and Damico, J. S. (1996). The contribution of discourse markers to communicative competence in aphasia. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology 5: 37–43.
Svennevig, J. (1999). Getting Acquainted in Conversation: A Study of Initial Interactions. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Co.
Wilkinson, R. (1999). Sequentiality as a problem and resource for intersubjectivity in aphasic conversation: Analysis and implications for therapy. Aphasiology 13 (4–5): 327–343. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/026870399402127
Wilkinson, R. (2006). Applying conversation analysis to aphasic talk: From investigation to intervention. Revue Française de Linguistique Appliquée 11 (2): 99–110.
Wilkinson, R. (2010). Interaction-focused intervention: A conversation analytic approach to aphasia therapy. Journal of Interactional Research in Communication Disorders 1 (1): 45–68. http://dx.doi.org/10.1558/jircd.v1i1.45
Wilkinson, R., Beeke, S. and Maxim, J. (2003). Adapting to conversation: On the use of linguistic resources by speakers with fluent aphasia in the construction of turns at talk. In C. Goodwin (ed.) Conversation and Brain Damage, 59–89. New York: Oxford University Press.
Wilkinson, R., Bryan, K., Lock, S. and Sage, K. (2010). Implementing and evaluating aphasia therapy targeted at couples’ conversations: A single case study. Aphasiology 24 (6–8): 869–866. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02687030903501958
Wilkinson, R., Lock, S., Bryan, K. and Sage, K. (2011). Interaction-focused intervention for acquired language disorders: Facilitating mutual adaptation in couples where one partner has aphasia. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology 13 (1): 74–87. http://dx.doi.org/10.3109/17549507.2011.551140
Barnes, S. E. (2011). Claiming mutual stance: On the use of that’s right by a person with aphasia. Research on Language & Social Interaction 44 (4): 359–384. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08351813.2011.619312
Barnes, S. E. (2012). On that’s right and its combination with other tokens. Journal of Pragmatics 44 (3): 243–260.
Beeke, S., Wilkinson, R. and Maxim, J. (2003). Exploring aphasic grammar 1: A single case analysis of conversation. Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics 17 (2): 81–107. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0269920031000061795
Beeke, S., Wilkinson, R. and Maxim, J. (2007). Grammar without sentence structure: A conversation analytic investigation of agrammatism. Aphasiology 21 (3/4): 256–282. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02687030600911344
Bloch, S. and Beeke, S. (2008). Co-constructed talk in the conversation of people with dysarthria and aphasia. Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics 22 (12): 974–990. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02699200802394831
Bloch, S. and Wilkinson, R. (2009). Acquired dysarthria in conversation: Identifying sources of understandability problems. International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders 44 (5): 769–783. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13682820802546969
Button, G. and Casey, N. (1984). Generating topic: The use of topic initial elicitors. In J. M. Atkinson and J. Heritage (eds) Structures of Social Action: Studies in Conversation Analysis, 165–190. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Button, G. and Casey, N. (1985). Topic nomination and topic pursuit. Human Studies 8 (1): 3–55. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF00143022
Gardner, R. (2001). When Listeners Talk: Response Tokens and Listener Stance. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Co.
Goodwin, C. (1995). Co-constructing meaning in conversations with an aphasic man. Research on Language & Social Interaction 28 (3): 233–260. http://dx.doi.org/10.1207/s15327973rlsi2803_4
Helasvuo, M., Laakso, M. and Sorjonen, M. (2004). Searching for words: Syntactic and sequential construction of word search in conversations of Finnish speakers with aphasia. Research on Language & Social Interaction 37 (1): 1–37. http://dx.doi.org/10.1207/s15327973rlsi3701_1
Jefferson, G. (1984). On stepwise transition from talk about a trouble to inappropriately next-positioned matters. In J. M. Atkinson and J. Heritage (eds) Structures of Social Action: Studies in Conversation Analysis 191–222. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Jefferson, G. (1978). Sequential aspects of storytelling in conversation. In J. Schenkein (ed.) Studies in the Organization of Conversational Interaction, 219–248. New York: Academic Press.
Kertesz, A. (2006). The Western Aphasia Battery – Revised. San Antonio, TX: PsychCorp.
Laakso, M. (1997). Self-initiated Repair by Fluent Aphasic Speakers in Conversation. Helsinki: Finnish Literature Society.
Laakso, M. and Klippi, A. (1999). A closer look at the ‘hint and guess’ sequences in aphasic conversation. Aphasiology 13 (4–5): 345–363. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/026870399402136
Linell, P. and Korolija, N. (1995). On the division of communicative labour within episodes in aphasic discourse. International Journal of Psycholinguistics 11 (2): 143–165.
Lock, S., Wilkinson, R. and Bryan, K. (2001). Supporting Partners of People with Aphasia in Relationships and Conversation (SPPARC): A Resource Pack. Bicester: Speechmark.
Maynard, D. W. (2003). Bad News, Good News: Conversational Order in Everyday Talk and Clinical Settings. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Perkins, L. (1995). Applying conversation analysis to aphasia: Clinical implications and analytic issues. European Journal of Disorders of Communication 30 (3): 372–383. http://dx.doi.org/10.3109/13682829509021449
Perkins, L., Crisp, J. and Walshaw, D. (1999). Exploring conversation analysis as an assessment tool for aphasia: The issue of reliability. Aphasiology 12 (4–5): 259–281. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/026870399402091
Ryave, A. L. (1978). On the achievement of a series of stories. In J. Schenkein (ed.) Studies in the Organization of Conversational Interaction, 113–132. New York: Academic Press.
Sacks, H. (1992). Lectures on Conversation (Vols. 1 and 2). Cambridge: Blackwell.
Schegloff, E. A. (1982). Discourse as an interactional achievement: Some uses of ‘uh huh’ and other things that come between sentences. In D. Tannen (ed.) Analyzing Discourse: Text and Talk, 71–93. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.
Schegloff, E. A. (1990). On the organization of sequences as a source of coherence in talkin-interaction. In B. Dorval (ed.) Conversational Organization and its Development, 51–77. Norwood, MA: Ablex.
Schegloff, E. A. (1996). Turn organization: One intersection of grammar and interaction. In E. Ochs, E. A. Schegloff and S. A. Thompson (eds) Interaction and Grammar, 52–133. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Schegloff, E. A. (2006). Interaction: The infrastructure for social institutions, the natural ecological niche for language and the arena in which culture is enacted. In N. J. Enfield and S. C. Levinson (eds) Roots of Human Sociality: Culture, Cognition and Interaction, 70–96. London: Berg.
Schegloff, E. A. (2007). Sequence Organization in Interaction: A Primer in Conversation Analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511791208
Schegloff, E. A. and Sacks, H. (1973). Opening up closings. Semiotica 8 (4): 289–327. http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/semi.1973.8.4.289
Schegloff, E. A., Jefferson, G. and Sacks, H. (1977). The preference for self-correction in the organization of repair in conversation. Language 53 (2): 361–382. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/413107
Selting, M. (2000). The construction of units in conversational talk. Language in Society 29 (4): 477–517. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0047404500004012
Simmons-Mackie, N. N. and Damico, J. S. (1996). The contribution of discourse markers to communicative competence in aphasia. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology 5: 37–43.
Svennevig, J. (1999). Getting Acquainted in Conversation: A Study of Initial Interactions. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Co.
Wilkinson, R. (1999). Sequentiality as a problem and resource for intersubjectivity in aphasic conversation: Analysis and implications for therapy. Aphasiology 13 (4–5): 327–343. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/026870399402127
Wilkinson, R. (2006). Applying conversation analysis to aphasic talk: From investigation to intervention. Revue Française de Linguistique Appliquée 11 (2): 99–110.
Wilkinson, R. (2010). Interaction-focused intervention: A conversation analytic approach to aphasia therapy. Journal of Interactional Research in Communication Disorders 1 (1): 45–68. http://dx.doi.org/10.1558/jircd.v1i1.45
Wilkinson, R., Beeke, S. and Maxim, J. (2003). Adapting to conversation: On the use of linguistic resources by speakers with fluent aphasia in the construction of turns at talk. In C. Goodwin (ed.) Conversation and Brain Damage, 59–89. New York: Oxford University Press.
Wilkinson, R., Bryan, K., Lock, S. and Sage, K. (2010). Implementing and evaluating aphasia therapy targeted at couples’ conversations: A single case study. Aphasiology 24 (6–8): 869–866. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02687030903501958
Wilkinson, R., Lock, S., Bryan, K. and Sage, K. (2011). Interaction-focused intervention for acquired language disorders: Facilitating mutual adaptation in couples where one partner has aphasia. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology 13 (1): 74–87. http://dx.doi.org/10.3109/17549507.2011.551140
Published
2012-04-03
Issue
Section
Articles
How to Cite
Barnes, S. E., & Ferguson, A. (2012). Speakership Asymmetry During Topic Talk Involving a Person with Aphasia. Journal of Interactional Research in Communication Disorders, 3(1), 27-46. https://doi.org/10.1558/jircd.v3i1.27
