DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF SCHIZOPHRENIC SPEECH - A CRITIQUE AND PROPOSAL

There is wide agreement that current psycholinguistic techniques (especially discourse analysis) may help us better understand the relationship between psychopathology and linguistic performance. This application would seem particularly worthwhile in the domain of schizophrenic speech, which has resisted adequate characterization in terms of earlier linguistic paradigms. A major effort at systematic psycholinguistic analysis has been made and is most developed in Rochester and Martin's (1979) monograph, Crazy Talk. While we see their interest in utilizing discourse analysis to be very appropriate, it manifests some serious shortcomings. Accordingly, we attempt to give a clearer picture of discourse analysis and the assumptions behind it. This elucidation should provide a better indication of both the promise and the procedures of a discourse-analytic approach to the speech productions of psychiatric populations. © 1990, Cambridge University Press. All rights reserved.