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Cohesion in oral discourse among speakers with aphasia induced by closed head traumatic brain injury (TBI) and cerebrovascular accident (CVA): Preliminary Data

Fiona Tsz Lam Tong1, Anthony Pak Hin Kong2* and Dustin Kai-Yan Lau1
  • 1 The Polytechnic University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, SAR China
  • 2 University of Central Florida, United States

Background Analysis of cohesion in oral discourse among English-speaking individuals with aphasia induced by closed head traumatic brain injury (TBI) and cerebrovascular accident (CVA) has received growing attention. Some common measures of discourse cohesion include cohesive adequacy (i.e., number of cohesive ties per discourse unit and completeness of cohesive ties) (Liles et al., 1989; Mok et al, 2016), usage pattern and diversity of cohesive devices (Halliday & Hasan, 1976; Mentis & Prutting, 1987) and cohesive harmony (i.e., inter-sentential interaction) (Halliday & Hasan, 1976). Mixed results regarding the degree of deficits and/or integrity of cohesion in TBI and CVA, as compared to non-brain injured controls (NBI), have been reported. For example, TBI and CVA subjects were found to produce fewer cohesive ties per discourse unit (Hartley & Jensen, 1991; Mentis & Prutting, 1987; Kurczek and Duff, 2011) and were lower in percentage of complete cohesive ties but higher in percentage of incomplete ties (Andreetta et al., 2012; Glosser & Deser, 1990; Liles et al., 1989). Regarding usage pattern and diversity, TBI subjects employed a smaller variety of conjunction ties (Mok et al., 2016) while CVA subjects produced a smaller variety of lexical ties (Armstrong, 2000). In contrast, Glosser and Deser (1990) and McDonald (1993) claimed relatively intact cohesion among speakers with TBI-induced aphasia. In view of these inconclusive findings revealed in the English-speaking population and, more importantly, the limited studies that evaluated and compared cohesion in the Cantonese-speaking TBI, CVA, and NBI population, this investigation aimed to examine cohesion in oral discourse produced by native Cantonese speakers with TBI- and CVA-induced aphasia and NBI controls. Method Four Cantonese-speaking individuals with anomic aphasia, two induced by TBI and two induced by CVA, and four NBI controls matched in age and education-level were recruited. Language samples containing descriptive discourses, story narratives, and procedural discourse were collected using Chinese AphasiaBank Protocol (Kong et al., 2015). Cohesion in their discourse was evaluated in three aspects: (1) cohesive adequacy, based on total number of cohesive devices used per T-unit (Hunt, 1970) and completeness of cohesive ties (Liles et al., 1989) (2) usage pattern and diversity of cohesive devices, based on the distribution of referential ties (personal, demonstrative, and comparative pronouns), conjunctive ties (causal, adversative, temporal, and additive), lexical ties (reiteration, synonym, antonym, superordinate, and collocation), and ellipsis (Halliday & Hasan, 1976), and (3) cohesive harmony based on Cohesive Harmony Index (Halliday & Hasan, 1976). Result and Discussion Compared with NBI controls, both TBI and CVA subjects produced fewer cohesive markers per T-unit and more incomplete ties. The TBI group had percentage of complete ties similar to NBI (unlike the CVA group who produced considerably fewer complete ties). Regarding usage patterns, fewer collocation ties were found in TBI subjects, but fewer conjunctive ties and ellipsis were found in subjects with CVA. Among the three groups, the TBI group (with the highest Peripheral-to-Relevant tokens ratio and second lowest Central-to-non-Central tokens ratio) demonstrated the lowest degree of cohesive harmony. Further analysis involving additional TBI and CVA cases are ongoing.

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Acknowledgements

Special thanks to Dr. Jie Zhu and clinicians in the Speech Therapy Department of the Guangdong Work Injury Rehabilitation Hospital (Guangzhou, China) for their help in subject recruitment and testing.□

References

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Armstrong, E. (2000). Aphasic discourse analysis: The story so far. Aphasiology, 14(9), 875-892.

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Mok, K., Kong, A., & Lau, K (2016). Cohesion in oral discourse of Mandarin-speaking adults with traumatic brain injury: Report of pilot data on story telling. Front. Psychol. Conference Abstract: 54th Annual Academy of Aphasia Meeting. doi: 10.3389/conf.fpsyg.2016.68.00047

Keywords: Aphasia, Traumatic brain injury (TBI), cohesion, discourse analysis, Chinese

Conference: Academy of Aphasia 55th Annual Meeting , Baltimore, United States, 5 Nov - 7 Nov, 2017.

Presentation Type: poster presentation

Topic: Aphasia

Citation: Tong F, Kong A and Lau D (2019). Cohesion in oral discourse among speakers with aphasia induced by closed head traumatic brain injury (TBI) and cerebrovascular accident (CVA): Preliminary Data
. Conference Abstract: Academy of Aphasia 55th Annual Meeting . doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2017.223.00098

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Received: 14 Apr 2017; Published Online: 25 Jan 2019.

* Correspondence: Prof. Anthony Pak Hin Kong, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL, United States, akong@hku.hk