Similarity disturbances in the linguistic communication of autistic persons, and what follows from them Cover Image

ZAKŁÓCENIA W DZIEDZINIE PODOBIEŃSTWA W KOMUNIKACJI JĘZYKOWEJ OSÓB Z AUTYZMEM – I CO Z TEGO WYNIKA
Similarity disturbances in the linguistic communication of autistic persons, and what follows from them

Author(s): Andrzej Kominek
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies
Published by: KSIĘGARNIA AKADEMICKA Sp. z o.o.
Keywords: autism; communication; metaphor; metonymy

Summary/Abstract: The paper refers to Roman Jakobson’s famous work on the bipolar nature of language, Two Aspects of Language and Two Types of Aphasic Distrubances. Every user of language leads a discourse, or discourses, by continuously switching between metaphor and metonymy, i.e. between imaging by similarity and focusing on contiguity. Jakobson observed that different types of aphasia are located between two polar types. In the first type, the relation of similarity disappears; in the second, the relation of contiguity. Metaphor is alien to the disturbance in the sphere of similarity; metonymy to the disturbance in the sphere of contiguity. Autistic persons do not understand metaphors, though the relation of contiguity remains undisturbed; this leads to specific cognitive consequences. The observations made in this paper require further detailed studies.

  • Issue Year: 2014
  • Issue No: 18
  • Page Range: 55-68
  • Page Count: 14
  • Language: Polish