COGS 154 Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: Real Genius, Pragmatics
Document Summary
Patients with right hemisphere damage (rhd) have largely preserved language skills (including grammar & word meaning) Impairments are with pragmatic aspects of language use. Pragmatics: inter-dependence between meaning & context (including physical context/situation, social context, cultural context, background knowledge, etc. ) May not establish common ground with conversational partner. Reduced sensitivity to the listener, including reduced eye contact & talking more/taking more turns in conversation. May change topic without warning or make remarks that are only tangentially related. Might have reduced, rather than increased, speech, or difficulty initiating conversation. Speech may lack cohesion (e. g. using a pronoun like he without having specified the referent) Speech may not be appropriate for the context/conversational partner, including use of inappropriate humor. Intention of speech may not be clear. Speech may be too vague or too detailed. Impairments are primarily with non-literal uses of language: o.