Relevance-Based Analysis of Aphasic Speech.docVIP

Relevance-Based Analysis of Aphasic Speech 　　Abstract 　　The aphasics constitute an important segment of our population. Interacting with them requires special procedures. Some of the caregivers of the aphasics and some other members of society often dismiss the speech of the aphasics as irrelevant and incoherent. This attitude towards the aphasics is counter-productive， as the interlocutors as well as the aphasics get frustrated during interactions. Against this background， this paper examined interactions with three Yoruba-English bilingual aphasics， using the relevance theory， with a view to revealing the systematic ways the meanings of the utterances of aphasics can be decoded by somebody who is not present when such a speech was recorded. The paper concludes that a better way of making inferences from the discourse of aphasics is to enter their worlds of experience， show interest in their discourses， make assumptions about their ostensions. In most cases， the discourses of aphasics fulfil at least one of the Extent Conditions. This implies that the discourses of aphasics are relevant and the effort expended in processing them can be reduced if the interlocutor/ analyst appropriately deplores the necessary contextual cues and clues. 　　Key words： Yoruba-English bilingual aphasics； Extent conditions； Relevance theory； Ostensions； Caregivers 　　INTRODUCTION 　　Communication is vital to human existence. It could be linguistic， non-linguistic， or paralinguistic. But linguistic communication is basic， while the other forms of communication are complementary. Central to these forms of communication is co-ordination. The people involved in communication needs to properly coordinate their resources of communication to pass their intended messages. By the same token， the receivers need to be able to properly coordinate their interpretive and analytic resources to be able to decode the message of the sender. Co-ordination cannot be done without the brain， because the brai