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Cognitive Aspects of Pragmatic Disorders

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Philosophy, Cognition and Pragmatics

Part of the book series: Perspectives in Pragmatics, Philosophy & Psychology ((PEPRPHPS,volume 34))

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Abstract

The study of the cognitive substrates of pragmatic disorders is a relatively recent development in clinical pragmatics. This development has been ushered in by calls from researchers and clinicians on two fronts. First, it has been urged that the field of pragmatics should undergo a cognitive turn, such that a cognitive examination of pragmatic concepts is afforded equal significance to societal, philosophical and linguistic approaches to the discipline. Second, clinicians have increasingly acknowledged that it is not possible to assess and treat clients with pragmatic disorders in isolation from cognitive concerns. The chapter begins with an examination of the various cognitive processes that play a role in a standard communicative exchange. From this examination the two main components of any cognitive treatment of pragmatic disorders—executive functions and theory of mind—are established. The findings of clinical studies of clients with pragmatic disorders are discussed. These studies suggest an association between cognitive processes such as theory of mind on the one hand and a range of pragmatic impairments on the other hand. Conversational data from clients with pragmatic disorders are used to illustrate these cognitive-based pragmatic impairments. Finally, three theoretical frameworks with the potential to explain the cognitive basis of pragmatic disorders are examined.

This chapter is a reprint of Cummings, L. (2017) ‘Cognitive aspects of pragmatic disorders’, in L. Cummings (ed), Research in Clinical Pragmatics, Series: Perspectives in Pragmatics, Philosophy & Psychology, Vol. 11, Cham, Switzerland: Springer International Publishing AG, 587–616.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Premack and Woodruff used the term ‘theory of mind’ in a 1978 paper entitled ‘Does the chimpanzee have a “theory of mind”?’. In that paper, ToM was defined as follows: ‘In saying that an individual has a theory of mind, we mean that the individual imputes mental states to himself and others […] A system of inferences of this kind is properly viewed as a theory, first because such states are not directly observable, and second, because the system can be used to make predictions, specifically about the behaviour of other organisms’ (Premack & Woodruff, 1978: 515).

  2. 2.

    For such a discussion, the reader is referred to Cummings (2005, 2009, 2012c, 2013b, 2014a, 2015b, 2015c, 2015d) for relevance theory, to Cummings (2014a) for cognitive pragmatics theory, to Cummings (2009, 2014a) for modular pragmatics theory and to Cummings (2009, 2013c, 2014a, 2015b, 2015d) for modular ToM.

  3. 3.

    ‘Human beings reason not by applying innate logical rules, but by constructing and manipulating mental models that subjectively represent states of affairs in the world’ (Bara, 2010: 22).

  4. 4.

    Another important component of Kasher’s modular pragmatics theory is its attempt to localise each type of pragmatic knowledge in the brain. A proposal for the localization of pragmatic knowledge that is consistent with clinical findings is one in which modular pragmatics is located in the brain’s left hemisphere, while parts of central pragmatics are in the right hemisphere. Kasher and his co-workers have made a significant contribution to the development of the sub-discipline of neuropragmatics. For discussion of this area of work, the reader is referred to Cummings (2010).

  5. 5.

    Relevance theory has more recently subscribed to the view that a cognitive module is the basis of pragmatic interpretation. According to Wilson (2005), pragmatics is a type of mind-reading which is performed by a domain-specific inferential module. And while pragmatic interpretation is not merely the application of general mind-reading abilities to the communicative domain, it is nonetheless a dedicated module which trades on certain regularities within this domain: ‘Verbal communication presents special challenges, and exhibits certain regularities, not found in other domains, and these may have led to the development of a dedicated comprehension module with its own special-purpose principles and mechanisms’ (1131).

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  1. Department of English and Communication, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China

    Louise Cummings

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  1. COSPECS, University of Messina, Messina, Italy

    Alessandro Capone

  2. Department of Cognitive Science, University of Messina, Messina, Italy

    Pietro Perconti

  3. COSPECS, University of Messina, Messina, Italy

    Roberto Graci

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Cummings, L. (2024). Cognitive Aspects of Pragmatic Disorders. In: Capone, A., Perconti, P., Graci, R. (eds) Philosophy, Cognition and Pragmatics . Perspectives in Pragmatics, Philosophy & Psychology, vol 34. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-50109-8_12

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