Title
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The story of a lifetime : a linguistic approach to studying changes in spontaneous written language due to ageing
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Author
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Abstract
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To this day, little is known about spontaneous written language changes in healthy ageing and ageing with a cognitive impairment. Nevertheless, insight in those language changes could aid the diagnostic screening process. To that extent, we set out (1) to establish how age, image characteristics and repeated testing affect picture naming, (2) to find out how ageing and sex affect the cohesion of written narratives, (3) to examine the test-retest reliability of spontaneous written language in healthy ageing and (4) to explore how spontaneous written language can be used to make a differential diagnosis. In order to be able to formulate an answer to these questions, a new clinical toolkit for the evaluation of spontaneous written speech was constructed. Spontaneous written language was studied with a focus on both the language generation process and the produced output. More specifically, keystroke logging tools were used to measure the writing (typing) process and the writing product was analysed in light of text cohesion. A new image database was developed, based on strict image and word characteristics, as a basis for the narrative writing tasks; tasks that elicit spontaneous written languages based on the prompted single-object images. The images were pre-tested and validated in a cross-sectional study; the narrative writing tasks were pre-tested and validated with the use of a cross-sectional and longitudinal study. Results indicate that future studies must differentiate between sexes in linguistic research and that cohesion variables are sensitive to ageing. The written output was not affected by test-retest settings, whereas the writing process was. We explored the potential of spontaneous written language for making a differential diagnosis with the use of four case studies. They provided further evidence for the sensitivity of cohesion variables such as the ‘Density of abstract verbs’. With the use of these various studies, we were able to establish a baseline for spontaneous written language changes upon healthy ageing and we constructed a new clinical toolkit for the evaluation of spontaneous written language that is non-intrusive, low-cost and time effective. This toolkit is the forerunner of a language test that could be used in future studies to make a differential diagnosis. We believe these findings contribute to the current set of screening tools into ageing, language and cognition. |
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Language
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English
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Publication
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Antwerpen
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Universiteit Antwerpen, Faculteit Letteren en Wijsbegeerte, Departement Taalkunde
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2022
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ISBN
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978-90-5728-732-9
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Volume/pages
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275 p.
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Note
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Leijten, Mariëlle [Supervisor]
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Letter, De, Miet [Supervisor]
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Full text (open access)
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