Cover not available
Article published In:
Pragmatics & Cognition
Vol. 24:3 (2017) ► pp.315–345

When “Goal!” means ‘soccer’

Verbatim fictive speech as communicative strategy by children with autism and two control groups

| Zhejiang University
| Federal University of Juiz de Fora
| Case Western Reserve University

Autism is characterized by repetitive behavior and difficulties in adopting the viewpoint of others. We examine a communicative phenomenon resulting from these symptoms: non-prototypical direct speech for non-reports involving an actual utterance from previously produced discourse (e.g. quoting somebody’s words to refer to them, Pascual 2014). We video-recorded the naturalistic speech of five Brazilian children with autism, five typically developing children of the same mental age, and five of the same chronological age. They all used so-called fictive speech (Pascual 2014, Dornelas & Pascual 2016) for narration, expressing needs, and referring to individuals and events (e.g. saying Goal! for ‘playing soccer’). Such verbatim fictive speech originated in specific prior interactions or in socio-communicative or socio-cultural knowledge. We found considerable differences in the three groups in the frequency and degree of creativeness of fictive speech as opposed to it representing standard linguistic formulae or echoing previously produced speech word by word.

Keywords: Autistic Spectrum Disorder, language development, fictive conversation, echolalia, metonymy, verbatim quotation
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Echolalia
  • 3.Methodology
  • 4.Qualitative analysis
    • 4.1ASD group
    • 4.2Control group 1 (matching mental age)
    • 4.3Control group 2 (matching chronological age)
  • 5.Quantitative results and comparison
  • 6.Discussion and conclusions
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 28 February 2019
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/pc.17038.pas
References

References

American Psychiatric Association (APA)
2013 Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders DSM-V. Washington: American Psychiatric Association Publishing. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Arciuli, Joanne & Jon Brock
(eds.) 2014 Communication in autism. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bakhtin, Mikhail M.
[1975]1981 The dialogic imagination. Austin: University of Texas Press.Google Scholar
1986 Speech genres and other late essays. Austin: University of Texas Press.Google Scholar
Bloom, Lois, Lois Hood & Patsy Lightbown
1974 Imitation in language development: If, when, and why. Cognitive Psychology 6(3). 380–420. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Brandt, Line & Esther Pascual
2016 “Say yes to this ad”: The persuasive rhetoric of fictive interaction in marketing. In Esther Pascual & Sergeiy Sandler (eds.), The conversation frame: Forms and functions of fictive interaction, 303–322. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bråten, Stein
1998 Intersubjective communication and emotion in early ontogeny. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Carpenter, Malinda & Michael Tomasello
2000 Joint attention, cultural learning, and language acquisition: Implications for children with autism. In Amy Wetherby & Barry Prizant (eds.), Communication and language issues in autism and pervasive developmental disorder: A transactional developmental perspective, 31–54. Baltimore: Brookes.Google Scholar
Clark, Herbert & Richard Gerrig
1990 Quotation as demonstration. Language 66(4). 784–805. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Clark, Ruth
1977 What’s the use of imitation? Journal of Child Language 4(3). 341–358. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Colombi, Costanza, Kristin Liebal, Michael Tomasello, Gregory Young, Felix Warneken & Sally J. Rogers
2009 Examining correlates of cooperation in autism: Imitation, joint attention, and understanding intentions. Autism 13(2). 143–163. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Dobbinson, Sushie, Michael Perkins & Jill Boucher
2003 The interactional significance of formulas in autistic language. Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics 17(4/5). 299–307. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Dornelas, Aline
2018 Interação fictiva como estratégia comunicativa de crianças ecolálicas com Transtorno do Espectro Autista [‘Fictive interaction as communicative strategy by echolaic children with Autism Spectrum Disorder’]. Federal University of Juiz de Fora, Brazil. PhD dissertation.Google Scholar
Dornelas, Aline & Esther Pascual
2016 Echolalia as communicative strategy: Fictive interaction in the speech of children with autism. In Esther Pascual & Sergeiy Sandler (eds.), The conversation frame: Forms and functions of fictive interaction, 343–361. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Du Bois, John W., Peter Hobson & Jessica A. Hobson
2014 Dialogic resonance and intersubjective engagement in autism. Cognitive Linguistics 25(3). 411–441. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Fay, Warren H.
1967 Mitigated echolalia of children. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research 101. 305–310. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Giora, Rachel & John W. Du Bois
(eds) 2014 Dialogic resonance: Activating affinities across utterances. Cognitive Linguistics 25(3). 351–557.Google Scholar
Gumperz, John J.
1982 Discourse strategies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hobson, R. Peter, Jessica A. Hobson, Rosa M. García-Pérez & John W. Du Bois
2012 Dialogic linkage and resonance in autism. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders 42(12). 2718–2728. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kanner, Leo
1943 Autistic disturbance of affective contact. Nervous Child 21. 217–250.Google Scholar
Langacker, Ronald W.
1987 Foundations of cognitive grammar. Vol 1.: Theoretical prerequisites. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Myers, Greg
1999 Unspoken speech: Hypothetical reported speech and the rhetoric of everyday talk. Text 19(4). 571–590. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Oakley, Todd & Đorđe Vidanović
2014 Deixis and personhood: Autism, intersubjectivity and the fluidity-to-inelasticity hypothesis. Cognitive Semiotics 7(2). 191–225. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Pascual, Esther
2014 Fictive interaction: The conversation frame in thought, language and discourse. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Pascual, Esther & Sergeiy Sandler
(eds.) 2016 The conversation frame: Forms and functions of fictive interaction. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Paccia, Jeanne & Frank Curcio
1982 Language processing and forms of immediate echolalia in autistic children. Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders 251. 42–47. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Pereira, Alessandra, Rudimar Riesgo & Mario Wagner
2008 Autismo infantile: Tradução e validação da “Childhood Autism Rating Scale” para uso no Brasil [‘Child autism: Translation and validation of the “Childhood Autism Rating Scale” for its usage in Brazil’]. Jornal de Pediatria 84(6). 487–494. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Prizant, Barry
1983 Language acquisition and communicative behavior in autism: Toward an understanding of the “whole” of it. Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders 48(3). 296–307. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Prizant, Barry & Judith Duchan
1987 The functions of immediate echolalia in autistic children. Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders 461. 241–249. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Prizant, Barry & Patrick Rydell
1984 Analysis of functions of delayed echolalia in autistic children. Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders 271. 183–192. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Roberts, Jacqueline M. A.
2014 Echolalia and language development in children with autism. In Joanne Arciuli & Jon Brock (eds.), Communication in autism, 55–73. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Rocha, Luiz Fernando & Pablo Arantes
2016 Intonation of fictive vs. actual direct speech in a Brazilian Portuguese corpus. In Esther Pascual & Sergeiy Sandler (eds.), The conversation frame: Forms and functions of fictive interaction, 215–234. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Roehler, Laura & Danise Cantlon
1997 Scaffolding: A powerful tool in social constructivist classrooms. In Kathleen Hogan & Michael Pressley (eds.), Sacaffolding student learning: Instructional approaches and issues, 6–42. Cambridge: Brookline.Google Scholar
Rydell, Patrick & Pat Mirenda
1991 The effects of two levels of linguistic constraint on echolalia and generative language production in children with autism. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders 19(2). 271–281.Google Scholar
1994 Effects of high and low constraint utterances on the production of immediate and delayed echolalia in young children with autism. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders 6(24). 719–735. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Schopler, D. Eric, Robert Reichler & Barbara Renner
1986 The childhood autism rating scale (CARS) for diagnostic screening and classification in autism. New York: Irvington.Google Scholar
Schuler, Adriana
1979 Beyond echolalia: Promoting language in children with autism. The National Autistic Society 7(4). 455–469.Google Scholar
Stake, Robert
2000 Case studies. In Norman K. Denzin & Yonna S. Lincoln (eds.), Handbook of qualitative research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
[2005]2013 Multiple case study analysis. New York: The Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Sterponi, Laura & Kenton Kirby
2016 A multidimensional reappraisal of language in autism: Insights from a discourse analytic study. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders 461. 396–405. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sterponi, Laura & Jennifer Shankey
2014 Rethinking echolalia: Repetition as interactional resource in the communication of a child with autism. Journal of Child Language 41(2). 275–304. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Talmy, Leonard
[1996]2000 Toward a cognitive semantics, vol. 11. Cambridge, Mass.: The MIT Press.Google Scholar
Tannen, Deborah
1986 Introducing constructed dialogue in Greek and American conversational and literary narratives. In Florian Coulmas (ed.), Direct and indirect speech, 311–322. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
[1989]2007 Talking voices: Repetition, dialogue, and imagery in conversational discourse. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Tomasello, Michael
2003 The cultural origins of human cognition. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
2005 Constructing a language: A usage-based theory of language acquisition. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
2006 Construction grammar for kids. Constructions 11(1). 1–23.Google Scholar
Versluis, Christine & Lou-Ann Kleppa
2016 The use of interactive structures as communicative strategy in Dutch and Portuguese aphasic speakers. In Esther Pascual & Sergeiy Sandler (eds.), The conversation frame: Forms and functions of fictive interaction, 323–342. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wetherby, Amy
1986 Ontogeny of communicative functions in autism. Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders 16(3). 295–316.Google Scholar
Williams, Lúcia & Ana Lúcia Aiello
2001 O inventário Portage operacionalizado: Intervenção com famílias [‘The operationalized Portage inventory: Intervention with families’]. São Paulo: Memnon.Google Scholar
Zorzi, Jaime & Simone Hage
2004 Protocolo de observação comportamental: Avaliação de linguagem e aspectos cognitivos infantis [‘Protocol for behavior observation: Assessment of language and children’s cognitive aspects’]. São José dos Campos: Pulso.Google Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 1 other publications

Xie, Fan, Esther Pascual & Todd Oakley
2023. Functional echolalia in autism speech: Verbal formulae and repeated prior utterances as communicative and cognitive strategies. Frontiers in Psychology 14 DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 12 april 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.