Verbs used by persons with aphasia during procedural discourse
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to determine if people with mild-moderate non-fluent
aphasia use verbs that differ in quantity and quality during procedural discourse than they do
during conversational discourse, as well as the degree to which these differences occur.
The participants for this study were 45 people from the Aphasia TalkBank with mildmoderate
non-fluent aphasia who had produced both free speech and procedural discourse
language samples. Of the participants, 39 had Broca’s aphasia and 6 had Transcortical Motor
aphasia. Only those with a score of 10 or higher on the spontaneous speech subtest of the
Western Aphasia Battery were eligible.
This study analyzed verbs from conversational discourse and procedural discourse
language samples. These language samples were drawn from the Aphasia TalkBank, a research
database. Each sample included both videos and printed transcripts. The database provided
demographic data and testing results. The free speech (conversational discourse) language
sample prompt was "Tell me about an important event in your life. It can be happy or sad, from
any time - from when you were a child or more recently." The procedural discourse language
sample prompt was "Tell me how you would make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich". Verbs
from these language samples were classified using Halliday's Verb Categories and verb tense.
Copulas, auxiliaries, modal verbs, transitive verbs, and intransitive verbs were also recorded. The
classified verbs were then compared between the two types of discourse samples and analyzed
for significant differences. Verb classifications were conducted both by the study author and a
third party to ensure inter-rater reliability. The results of the study showed that both the number
and type of verbs varied between the two discourse types.
Description
Thesis (M.A.)-- Wichita State University, College of Health Professions, Dept. of Communication Sciences and Disorders