A pragmatic view on referential acts in aphasia

Abstract

This paper investigates referential acts in discourse, focusing on how individuals with aphasia use language within specific communicative contexts. We argue that reference is not merely a function of lexical or syntactic conventions, but a pragmatic act shaped by context, shared knowledge, and interactional dynamics. Through discourse analyses, we show that people with aphasia often maintain referential coherence when supported by collaborative interlocutors. In contrast to traditional assessments that rely on decontextualized testing, we advocate for assessment approaches grounded in the analysis of real communicative situations, which better capture the situated and collaboratively constructed nature of reference. By integrating contextual, perceptual, and social dimensions into assessment and intervention, we propose a shift toward more dynamic and effective models for understanding and supporting communicative abilities in aphasia.

Keywords

Aphasia / Reference / Discourse / Referential act / Referential coherence / Pragmeme

CRediT authorship contribution statement

Capone Alessandro: Writing - review & editing, Writing - original draft, Visualization, Conceptualization. Graci Roberto: Writing - review & editing, Writing - original draft, Visualization, Data curation, Conceptualization.

Declaration of Competing Interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

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