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Background: Agrammatic speech can manifest in different ways in the same speaker if task demands change. Individual variation is considered to reflect adaptation, driven by psycholinguistic factors such as underlying deficit. Recently, qualitative investigations have begun to show ways in which conversational interaction can influence the form of an agrammatic speaker's output., Aims: To explore qualitative patterns of individual variation in the output of a single case, in order to address the following questions: (1) in what ways do grammatical structure, verbs and argument structure differ qualitatively between data samples?; and (2) what is the influence of interaction on the structure of utterances?, Methods & Procedures: A man with severe and chronic agrammatism is videotaped completing tests of spoken sentence construction, composite, and cartoon strip picture descriptions and a story telling task. In addition, he independently videotapes a sample of conversation with a family member at home. Analyses of these data draw on cognitive neuropsychological, linguistic and psycholinguistic methodologies as well as the data-driven procedures of conversation analysis., Outcomes & Results: The qualitative analysis uncovers considerable variation between data sets with respect to grammatical structure, verbs and argument structure. The agrammatic speaker appears more skilled at imposing order on his spontaneous speech than the results of sentence construction tests might predict. Interaction influences his output style. Adaptation is found to be a collaborative process that occurs between two speakers in the quest for mutual understanding, not something that takes place within an individual., Conclusions: It is concluded that an interactional approach to agrammatism has the potential to yield important insights into the characteristics of telegraphic speech and individual variation. The failure of sentence-level tests to capture this individual's skill in producing systematically structured utterances in conversation implies that the assessment of agrammatism could benefit from the additional sampling and analysis of conversational grammar.

Using the methodology and findings of conversation analysis, we analyze changes in the talk of a man with aphasia (a language disorder acquired following brain damage) at two points in his spontaneous recovery period in the first months post-stroke. We note that in the earlier conversation (15 weeks post-stroke) two of the turn constructional methods he particularly makes use of are replacement (a form of repair) and extension. By the time of the latter conversation (30 weeks poststroke) these methods are less prevalent, while another repair operation, insertion, is now used in a particular way not seen in the earlier conversation. We suggest that these methods are means by which the aphasic speaker adapts his limited linguistic resources to the demands of constructing a turn-at-talk in conversation in order to lessen the extent of repair and delay with the turn and thus lessen the exposure of his linguistic noncompetence and his identity as 'different', 'disabled', or 'language impaired'. These turn constructional methods are dynamic and change as the speaker recovers. We suggest that communication disorders such as aphasia can be problematic not only because of difficulties they can cause in conveying information or producing other social actions, but also because they can create difficulties in the presentation of self in everyday life.

This article reports an intervention in the conversations between a man with chronic aphasia, Barry, and his wife, Louise (both names are pseudonyms). Preintervention analysis revealed the potential of writing as a resource for turn construction. Intervention consisted of enabling Barry to use writing to produce more complete turns at talk, thereby increasing the likelihood of mutual understanding, and encouraging Louise to modify her responses to Barry’s turns and thus enhance his interactional potential. Quantitative analysis revealed that Barry significantly increased his use of writing after intervention, but there was no change in other trained strategies. Louise eradicated correct production sequences (designed to elicit the correct production of a word despite her knowing the target) but did not implement trained strategies. In conclusion, individually tailored input underpinned by Conversation Analysis principles can alter the conversational behavior of a person with aphasia. It appears easier for a conversation partner to reduce unhelpful behaviors than to adopt facilitatory strategies. Data are in British English. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The application of Conversation Analysis (CA) to the investigation of agrammatic aphasia reveals that utterances produced by speakers with agrammatism engaged in everyday conversation differ significantly from utterances produced in response to decontextualised assessment and therapy tasks. Early studies have demonstrated that speakers with agrammatism construct turns from sequences of nouns, adjectives, discourse markers and conjunctions, packaged by a distinct pattern of prosody. This article presents examples of turn construction methods deployed by three people with agrammatism as they take an extended turn, in order to recount a past event, initiate a discussion or have a disagreement. This is followed by examples of sequences occurring in the talk of two of these speakers that result in different, and more limited, turn construction opportunities, namely 'test' questions asked in order to initiate a new topic of talk, despite the conversation partner knowing the answer. The contrast between extended turns and test question sequences illustrates the effect of interactional context on aphasic turn construction practices, and the potential of less than optimal sequences to mask turn construction skills. It is suggested that the interactional motivation for test question sequences in these data are to invite people with aphasia to contribute to conversation, rather than to practise saying words in an attempt to improve language skills. The idea that test question sequences may have their origins in early attempts to deal with acute aphasia, and the potential for conversation partnerships to become 'stuck' in such interactional patterns after they may have outlived their usefulness, are discussed with a view to clinical implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]