Abstract
This study examines linguistic co-occurrence patterns in the discourse of individuals with communication impairments who use augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) devices in the workplace by comparing them to those of non-AAC users in similar job settings. A typical workweek (≈ 40 hours) per focal participant (four AAC; four non-AAC) was recorded and transcribed to create a specialized corpus of workplace discourse of approximately 464,000 words at the time of this analysis. A multidimensional analysis of co-occurrence patterns along functional linguistic dimensions, following Biber (1988, 1995) [Variation across Speech and Writing. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; Dimensions of Register Variation: A Cross-Linguistic Perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press], reveals differences in the macro discourse characteristics of AAC vis-a-vis non-AAC texts. Results indicate that AAC texts make use of more informational, non-narrative, and explicit textual features of discourse than their non-AAC counterparts. Implications to improve the capabilities of AAC devices to produce speech that matches baseline expectations of co-workers in the workplace are discussed.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 279-298 |
Number of pages | 20 |
Journal | Discourse Studies |
Volume | 15 |
Issue number | 3 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Jun 2013 |
Keywords
- Augmentative and alternative communication devices
- communication impairments
- corpus linguistics
- discourse analysis
- multidimensional analysis
- workplace discourse
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Social Psychology
- Communication
- Language and Linguistics
- Anthropology
- Linguistics and Language