The Linguistic Construction of Interpersonal Processes among People with Dementia: An Application of Systemic Functional Linguistics

Positive social interactions and relationships have been shown to be important for persons with dementia. However, to date, there are only very few systematic studies detailing the nature of interaction among people with dementia and how to successfully facilitate these interactions. This dissertation investigates how individuals with dementia use linguistic resources to construct role-relations with other people with dementia in casual conversation. A total of 5 conversations between the researcher and dyads of residents in a special care unit (n=5, all diagnosed with probable Alzheimer's Disease, mild to moderate cognitive impairment) were analyzed using Systemic Functional Linguistics (Halliday & Matthiessen, 2004). While a number of cognitive-communicative impairments were observed (i.e., a lack of orientation, problems in the reference system, and in expressing mutually understood experiential content), the residents were still able to successfully co-construct by-and-large positive relations with each other through their grammatical (i.e., mood structure, modality, and Subject), lexico-semantic (transitivity and appraisal), and discourse choices (speech function). Given that the interpersonal skills of discourse are still overall intact and that individuals with dementia do value positive social relations, it appears not only perfectly appropriate but also entirely logical to encourage casual conversation between residents in dementia care as a means of promoting positive personhood for people with dementia.