An investigation into the pragmatic features in the language products of high functioning autisti

THE UNIVERSITY OF DANANG UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE STUDIES NGUYỄN LÊ THỦY TIÊN AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE PRAGMATIC FEATURES IN THE LANGUAGE PRODUCTS OF HIGH-FUNCTIONING AUTISTIC INDIVIDUALS: A CASE-STUDY IN THE USA MASTER THESIS IN LINGUISTICS AND CULTURAL STUDIES OF FOREIGN COUNTRIES Da Nang, 2020 THE UNIVERSITY OF DANANG UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE STUDIES NGUYỄN LÊ THỦY TIÊN AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE PRAGMATIC FEATURES IN THE LANGUAGE PRODUCTS OF HIGH-FUNCTIONING AUTISTIC INDIVIDUALS: A CASE-STUDY IN THE USA Major: ENGLISH LINGUISTICS Code: 822.02.01 MASTER THESIS IN LINGUISTICS AND CULTURAL STUDIES OF FOREIGN COUNTRIES Supervisor: VÕ THANH SƠN CA, Ph.D Da Nang, 2020 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT Thank you Dr Vo Thanh Son Ca, for the rapid and infinite help you provided me during the course of my research from the very beginning Thank you Becky and Nadine, for lending me an ear when I need to talk and believing that I can make a difference Thank you Anh and Linh, for your assistance during my research And thank you to my parents, who provided me with the care I needed STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP Except where reference is made in the text of the thesis, this thesis contains no material published elsewhere or extracted in whole or in part from a thesis by which I have qualified for or been awarded another degree or diploma No other person’s work has been used without due acknowledgements in the thesis This thesis has not been submitted for the award of any degree or diploma in any other tertiary institution Da Nang, May 2020 Nguyen Le Thuy Tien ABSTRACT One of the most universal traits of high functioning autistic people is the difficulty in language production This creates several problems for autistic people when interacting with neurotypicals, putting them at risk of being discriminated against and misunderstood (Asperger, 1991) However, little has been done on this phenomenon, as most previous research on language of autistic people only produced results based on experiments in artificial environments (Fine, Bartolucci, Szatmari, & Ginsberg, 1994; Mitchell, Saltmarsh, & Russell, 1997; Surian, BaronCohen, & Van der Lely, 1996) Moreover, the subjects of these studies were almost always autistic children and adolescents, leaving a gap in the literature which is the language of autistic adults Therefore, this research aimed to analyze the pragmatic features in the spoken and written language products of high-functioning autistic people, through the case study of Christian Weston Chandler (CWC), a highfunctioning autistic man who did not receive proper treatment for his autism throughout his life Specifically, this study attempted to identify the features of literal and non-literal utterances in CWC‘s spoken and written language and examined the connections between CWC‘s spoken and written language Based on the Discourse Analysis method (Salkind, 2010), the data from 37 phone calls and 290 emails between CWC and several different neurotypicals were qualitatively analyzed These phone calls and emails were analyzed separately in order to identify the main features of CWC‘s spoken language and written language CWC‘s spoken language were then compared with his written language in order to examine the connections between his spoken and written language The findings suggested that both CWC‘s spoken and written language shared two main features: The first is the mismatch between the non-literal utterances in the neurotypicals‘ statements and the literal utterances in CWC‘s responses, and the second is the conformation of the responses to the intention behind the neurotypicals‘ statements However, the literal - nonliteral conformation was more apparent in written texts than in spoken texts, and the literal - non-literal mismatch was more apparent in spoken texts than in written texts Furthermore, there was a connection between CWC‘s level of stress and the increase of the literal - non-literal mismatch in CWC‘s spoken language, while there was no such increase in his written language There are also two other features, each of which was unique to either CWC‘s spoken or written language They are the tendency to repeat the neurotypicals‘ statements word-by-word (in spoken language), and the tendency to group multiple responses to the neuropicals‘ statements into one paragraph without clarifying which statement was being addressed (in written language) However, there was a few instances in CWC‘s written language when he also repeated the neurotypicals‘ statements, and this tendency was somewhat linked to the decrease in grouping tendency in CWC‘s response - that is - CWC was more likely to separate his responses with ordinal adverbs or numbers if the neurotypicals also did the same in their emails Overall, although there were instances when CWC‘s responses conformed to the intention behind the neurotypicals‘ statements, the frequency of this happening was low and inconsistent Thus, it is advisable for teachers, medical staff, social workers and the general public to limit the use of nonliteral utterances when communicating with high-functioning autistic people During communication, they should express their point as clear and concise as possible It is also necessary that they should not assume bad intention from high-functioning autistic people when miscommunication occurs Medical staff and social workers can also refer to the results of this study to create a framework for effective methods of treatment and assistance for high-functioning autistic people Keyword: high-functioning autism; language products; pragmatics; case-study, nonliteral utterance TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENT i STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP ii ABSTRACT iii TABLE OF CONTENTS .v LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS viii LIST OF TABLES ix LIST OF FIGURES .x Chapter One INTRODUCTION 1.1 RATIONALE 1.2 AIMS AND OBJECTIVES 1.2.1 Aims 1.2.2 Objectives .5 1.3 RESEARCH QUESTIONS 1.4 SCOPE OF THE STUDY .6 1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY 1.6 ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY Chapter Two LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL BACKGROUND .8 2.1 LITERATURE REVIEW 2.2 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND: .9 2.2.1 High-functioning autism and related concepts 2.2.1.1 Theory of mind 2.2.1.2 Autism .10 2.2.2 Speech Act 12 2.2.2.1 Definition of Speech Act 12 2.2.2.2 Structure of a speech act 12 2.2.2.3 Illocutionary Force 13 2.2.2.4 Explicit performative vs implicit performative: .13 2.2.2.5 Indirect speech act 14 2.2.2.6 Literal speech act vs non-literal speech act .15 2.2.3 A description of CWC 17 2.3 SUMMARY 18 Chapter Three METHODOLOGY 19 3.1 RESEARCH DESIGN 19 3.2 RESEARCH METHODS .19 3.3 PROCEDURES 20 3.3.1 Data Collection 20 3.3.2 Data coding 23 3.3.2.1 Coder 23 3.3.2.2 Coder training 23 3.3.2.3 Reliability estimate of coding 25 3.3.3 Data analysis 26 3.4 SUMMARY 30 Chapter Four FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS .31 4.1 FEATURES OF LITERAL AND NON-LITERAL UTTERANCES IN CWC‘S SPOKEN LANGUAGE 31 4.1.1 Features of literal and non-literal utterances in CWC‘s phone calls from August 3rd, 2009 to November 10th, 2009 31 4.1.1.1 Phone calls between CWC and Kacey (from August 3rd, 2009 to November 10th, 2009) 32 4.1.1.2 Phone calls between CWC and Matthew (27th phone call, November 4th, 2009) 43 4.1.1.3 The 28 phone calls from August 3rd, 2009 to November 10th, 2009.48 4.1.2 Features of literal and non-literal utterances in CWC‘s phone calls from January 22nd, 2010 to February 25th, 2010 50 4.1.3 Features of literal and non-literal utterances in CWC‘s 38 phone calls 56 4.2 FEATURES OF LITERAL AND NON-LITERAL UTTERANCES IN CWC‘S WRITTEN LANGUAGE 57 4.3 THE CONNECTIONS BETWEEN CWC‘S SPOKEN AND WRITTEN LANGUAGE 66 4.4 DISCUSSION .70 4.5 SUMMARY 76 Chapter Five CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS 77 5.1 CONCLUSIONS 77 5.2 IMPLICATIONS 83 5.2.1 To teachers .84 5.2.2 To medical staff and social workers .84 5.2.3 To the general public 85 5.3 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY AND SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH 85 REFERENCES QUYẾT ĐỊNH GIAO ĐỀ TÀI LUẬN VĂN (Bản sao) LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS CWC : Christian Weston Chandler LC : Liquid Chris their advantage Below are two extracts that demonstrate such occasions The first extract is taken from the conversation between CWC and Matthew (retrieved from https://sonichu.com/cwcki/Father_Call) [-] Chris: [ ] Another heavy-duty burden I had to take care of, and that I wasn't paid for? When my dog died, a few years ago, she was a sweet dog, I moved, I lifted and carried her doghouse to the site where we buried her Her doghouse That thing had to weigh, like, five, ten tons Matthew: [laughs in disbelief] Chris: It was very heavy! I carried that thing Matthew: [about to break down laughing] You're talking to me about how your dog died, you're talking about someone who has lost friends and family in national tragedies My mother, I had I had to deal with the loss of my mother, not to old age, but to fucking a plane by fucking piloted by terrorists My gran-, my mother was killed by terrorists Chris: Yeah Yeah, my Matthew: And your but, but your heavy burden is your dog died I'm sorry, but boo, really, I've had dogs die, it sucks, but that's nothing that's nothing Chris: Y'know, yeah, well, yeah, well, yeah, well, I was very sad when she died It was not a matter of age, it was pretty much, yeah, she was very sickly, there was nothing we could do, so I, I signed that form to give them permission to put her to sleep I let her, I let her go, that was an emotional burden on me And I have, I have been, my aunt Corrina died just a few months, just a few months, just last January, because of, because of heart cancer Matthew: [laughs in disbelief] Are you, are you Chris: It was very, it was very saddening, I was very Matthew: I'm sorry, are you messing with me? Are you trying to compare the loss of my mother, the loss of someone who took care of me for years, to a dog? Are you calling my mother a dog? [-] In this extract, CWC was trying to convince Matthew that he occasionally worked hard by referring to his work during the burial of his dog The conversation was then changed to the topic of the dead dog, as Matthew compared CWC‘s loss to his supposed loss of his mother, claiming that CWC‘s loss was not comparable to his loss His statement “I'm sorry, but that's nothing” was not only a representative statement informing that CWC‘s loss was insignificant, but also an inferential statement implying that CWC was in no position to complain about his dog since it was not comparable to Matthew‘s loss CWC‘s response did not take into account this implication, and only considered the literal meaning that the loss of his dog was not significant Thus, CWC‘s response continued to justify the loss by detailing the process of burying the dog Matthew then addressed this response with the assumption that CWC was intentionally ignoring his above-mention implication, accusing him of comparing his loss of a mother to the loss of a dog This accusation was later employed again by Kacey, during the phone call between CWC and LC, as a proof that CWC was not as worthy for Kacey as LC (extract retrieved from https://sonichu.com/cwcki/Kacey_and_Liquid_Call) [-] Kacey: I think I'm starting to realize that I mean, you're delusional! Chris: No, no, Kacey, you know it, you know it, you know that I'm true, please, believe— Please, Kacey, don't do, don't this Liquid: No, he is not true! He is a liar and a fraud, he Kacey: What about everything you said? You compared my grandma dying to your dog dying I've had dogs die before, too Not anything like Grandma dying You know, just saying Liquid: And I would never be that disrespectful, because I am the real, loyal Chris: Yeah, okay, I'm sorry about that lousy, okay, I'm sorry about that comparison, Kacey Liquid: Oh yeah, just shut up, you're not going to make it up this time You are, you have always just been this naive, because that's all, that's all you've ever been, just a Kacey: [Drowns out Liquid] And you pissed off my family I mean, my family hates you [-] In the extract, Kacey and LC were having CWC believe that they were lovers It was clear from the extract that CWC was under great stress at that moment During the argument, Kacey once again referred to the previous conversation between CWC and Matthew about the dead dog, which then led to her conclusion that CWC infuriated Kacey‘s family The conversation became a proof for Kacey to prove her point that CWC was insensitive, and further add to CWC‘s stress, even though it stemmed from a mismatch between the non-literal utterance in the Matthew‘s statement and the literal utterance in CWC‘s response This situation echoed the observation that Asperger (1991) made during his research into autistic people, as he described the language of autistic people as unnatural and could become a subject of ridicule among neurotypicals Although much of the harassment toward CWC came from his strange view of the world and his bad behavior, as well as his inability to ignore the trolls, it is undeniable that the abnormality in his language also gave the trolls a significant advantage in the harassment, since most of their justification for going after CWC was that he was an immoral and inconsiderate person The example above illustrated how the abnormality in CWC‘s language could be exploited to serve such justification Thus, a good understanding of the pragmatic features of the language products of high-functioning autistic people is crucial to avoid unfortunate miscommunication and help high-functioning autistic people One of the biggest challenges that highfunctioning autistic people face is communication problems with neurotypicals, and good communication can greatly increase the chance of high-functioning autistic people being better understood and receiving proper help to integrate into society To neurotypicals, good communication can also provide them with insight into how highfunctioning autistic people view the world, and subsequently lead to greater understanding and empathy 5.2 IMPLICATIONS Since CWC‘s high-functioning autism was left untreated, his behavior was one of the purest manifestations of high-functioning autism Thus, the analysis of his spoken and written language provides a good insight into the way other highfunctioning autistic people communicate The result of this research can be reviewed and applied by teachers, medical staff, social workers and the general public in order to better understand and work with high-functioning autistic people 5.2.1 To teachers From the analysis of the data, it can be inferred that the mismatch between the non-literal utterances in the neurotypicals‘ statements and the literal utterances in CWC‘s responses tended to happen when the neurotypicals‘ statements had a considerable amount of length and contained several non-literal utterances in order to express a single point This tendency happened in both spoken and written texts And although CWC was shown to be able to produce responses that matched the intention of the neurotypicals, the frequency of this happening was relatively low and inconsistent Therefore, a general rule for teachers when communicating with highfunctioning autistic students is that there should be no assumption of the students‘ ability to understand non-literal utterances Thus, when communicating with highfunctioning autistic students, especially when giving commands, teachers should try to express their intention clearly, using short, concise sentences Teachers should also limit their use of non-literal utterances It is recommended that teachers try to help students maintain a neutral mood during communication And when there is a miscommunication, teachers should not assume bad intention from students until there is evidence that proves otherwise 5.2.2 To medical staff and social workers This study can potentially provide medical staff and social workers with an insight into the language products of high-functioning autistic people Medical staff can use the results of the study to create a framework of treatment method for language abnormality in high-functioning autistic people; and social workers can refer to the results in order to better aid high-functioning autistic people in integrating into society It is also important that medical staff and social workers provide patients with a good communication model, as high-functioning autistic people have been shown to model their communication style from the neurotypicals they interact with (CWC‘s tendency to repeat the neurotypicals‘ statements, both in spoken and written texts) 5.2.3 To the general public There is a tendency of the general public to expect a good level of understanding of non-literal utterances during normal communication Thus, it is easy for the general public to assume bad intention from people when the intention behind non-literal utterances is not properly acknowledged The result of this research has proven that there is a tendency for high-functioning autistic people to produce responses that does not match that intention, and this is not done under any malicious intention Therefore, it is important that the general public take into account this tendency, and give high-functioning autistic people the benefit of the doubt when miscommunication occurs When communicating with high- functioning autistic people, it is highly recommended that people use short sentences and limit the use of non-literal utterances The most important thing to during a conversation with a high-functioning autistic person is to express a clear intention to him/her, without any non-literal utterances to distract him/her from the main point being made 5.3 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY AND SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH This study has a number of limitations that needed to be addressed in future research First, during the course of the data analysis process, 84 emails were excluded from the research for not being based on any particular contexts However, 39 of those emails were much longer than the 290 emails being used as data They were exchanges between CWC and two neurotypicals, and CWC was not under the pressure to respond to the emails under a certain amount of time like he was with the 290 emails with fans Furthermore, the 39 emails were also composed before the date of the 290 emails The 39 emails, if properly researched, could provide an insight into the features of CWC‘s written language under different conditions from the 290 emails This analysis can also provide evidence for whether CWC‘s written language showed any considerable change within a significant period of time like his spoken language Second, the 27th phone call from August 3rd, 2009 to November 10th, 2009 involved three people: CWC, Kacey and LC Due to the scope of the study, the research only focused on the moments when CWC was talking with one person However, CWC occasionally showed signs that he became confused while communicating with two people simultaneously For example, in the extract below, CWC was arguing with LC and continued to talk even though Kacey interrupted and told him to stop talking [-] Liquid: That has always been mine Sonichu has been mine, Sonichu has been mine ever since I came up with him in the walls of Manchester High School Kacey: That's why he showed it first, to prove it Chris: You've never been to Manchester High School! Liquid: Yeah, I have! I went there for four, for four damn years! Chris: You, but you, you stand right next I tell you what You stand right next to me in front of Mrs Lori Jones, that was the, was the, one of the teachers over at Manchester High School Liquid: I am the real and true Kacey: Chris, stop yelling at my boyfriend! Be respectful! Chris: [Talking over both Kacey and Liquid now] Or even from Mr Pascarelli, who was the principal there! Go up right in front of him, and he would say I am the real Christian Weston Chandler and that you are the fake! [-] (Retrieved from https://sonichu.com/cwcki/Kacey_and_Liquid_CaU) CWC also showed signs of confusion in the phone call with Matthew, during the time period when Kacey was also involved in the conversation In the extract below, Kacey and Matthew were talking to each other and they were not addressing CWC However, CWC produced a response addressing both of them [-] Kacey: Is he being disrespectful again, Daddy? Matthew: He's always been he's been disrespectful this whole time Chris: [heavy sigh] I have not been lying! Matthew: When Kacey says it, when Kacey says it you believe it now Kacey: I just don't understand Matthew: I don't understand either Chris: I can't say I'm in full understanding either [-] (Retrieved from https://sonichu.com/cwcki/Father Call#Respect and Listening_Skills_.281:19:04-1:24:45.29) Due to the lack of sufficient data, the study was unable to properly analyze how this confusion manifested in CWC‘s spoken language However, Attwood (2007) also made a similar comment about this kind of confusion in people with Asperger’s syndrome (a type of high-functioning autism), using the phrase “two’s company, three’s a crowd” (p 56) to describe such situation However, Attwood provided no further detail about this phenomenon Therefore, further research should look into the features of CWC’s spoken language during conversations with more than two participants involved It is recommended that a future study should consider the 12 phone calls that were excluded from this current research, which involved more than three active participants Third, there seems to be another connection between CWC’s spoken and written language that this study failed to properly analyze due to the researcher’s limited knowledge and a lack of clear framework for data analysis There seems to be a tendency in CWC’s written language to emulate the style of spoken language, such as voice raising or sighing The most apparent manifestation of this feature is the use of capital letters These capital words were possibly an attempt of CWC to emulate a loud voice, as they were placed in extremely specific areas of the emails This feature is both apparent in the 290 emails with fan and the excluded 84 emails Here is an example of such instance (retrieved from https://sonichu.com/cwcki/ Mailbag_5#Daniel_Tammet.2FPunching_your_baby_will_make_it_gay) I would not hate the guy for just the ONE reason; I liked Stephen Fry's vocal work on LittleBiGPlanet, but I not hold his lifestyle against him; he did his work and did a good job Also, hoping someone dies for ONLY that one reason is just stupid I appreciate your wanting to name your child after me, but FOR GOD's Sake, rasing a child with Autism is a LOT OF HARD WORK, a LOT harder than raising a Normal Child Although, you may look up Autism on Wikipedia to see the mental problems of the child to further prove the point Also, For God's Sake, NEVER EVER let your wife drink, smoke or be physically abused or hurt while she is pregnant IF ANYTHING, such actions CAN PROVOKE homosexuality in the child GOD! W.T.F is going on in that head of yours?! I'm sorry for that outburst, but you needed the wake-up call in my humble opinion May god bless you with a straight, normal, intelligent child -ChrisChanSonichu 01:16, 29 November 2009 (CET) Additionally, the chat log excluded from the study also contains several instances of CWC writing —sigh” and one instance when CWC wrote a description of how he was sighing, as if the chat section was a spoken conversation: [-] CWCSonichu: why can't you just say "okay" after I type in brb, so I can get an asprin, take a deep breath or something, which is the acronym for "be right back"? 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Distribution of the instances of the three features of CWC‘s spoken language in each phone call with Kacey Page 24 25 25 25 37 Distribution of the instances of the three features of CWC‘s 4.2 spoken language. .. shows the symbols used during the data coding process of CWC’s written language and their meanings Table 3.2 Symbols used during the data coding process of CWC’s written language and their meanings