35.166, Books: Conversation and intonation in autism: Wehrle (2023)

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LINGUIST List: Vol-35-166. Sat Jan 13 2024. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 35.166, Books: Conversation and intonation in autism: Wehrle (2023)

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Date: 13-Dec-2023
From: Sebastian Nordhoff [sebastian.nordhoff at langsci-press.org]
Subject: Conversation and intonation in autism: Wehrle (2023)


Title: Conversation and intonation in autism
Subtitle: A multi-dimensional analysis
Series Title: Studies in Laboratory Phonology
Publication Year: 2023
Publisher: Language Science Press
                http://langsci-press.org
Book URL: https://langsci-press.org/catalog/book/404

Author: Simon Wehrle
Abstract:


This book provides an in-depth, multi-dimensional analysis of
conversations between autistic adults. The investigation is focussed
on intonation style, turn-taking and the use of backchannels, filled
pauses and silent pauses.

Previous findings on intonation style in the context of autism
spectrum disorder (ASD) are contradictory, with claims ranging from
characteristically monotonous to characteristically melodic
intonation. A novel methodology for quantifying intonation style is
used, and it is revealed that autistic speakers tended towards a more
melodic intonation style compared to control speakers in the data set
under investigation.

Research on turn-taking (the organisation of who speaks when in
conversation) in ASD is limited, with most studies claiming a tendency
for longer silent gaps in ASD. No clear overall difference in
turn-timing between the ASD and the control group was found in the
data under study. There was, however, a clear difference between
groups specifically in the earliest stages of dialogue, where ASD
dyads produced considerably longer silent gaps than controls.

Backchannels (listener signals such as mmhm or okay) have barely been
investigated in ASD to date. The current analysis shows that autistic
speakers produced fewer backchannels per minute (particularly in the
early stages of dialogue), and that backchannels were less diverse
prosodically and lexically. Filled pauses (hesitation signals such as
uhm and uh) in ASD have been the subject of a handful of previous
studies, most of which claim that autistic speakers produced fewer uhm
tokens (specifically). It is shown that filled pauses were produced at
an identical rate in both groups and that there was an equivalent
preference of uhm over uh. ASD speakers differed only in the prosodic
realisation of filled pauses. It is further shown that autistic
speakers produced more long silent (within-speaker) pauses than
controls.

The analyses presented in this book provide new insights into
conversation strategies and intonation styles in ASD, as reviewed in a
summary analysis. The findings are discussed in the context of
previous research, general characteristics of cognition in ASD, and
the importance of studying communication in interaction and across
neurotypes.

Linguistic Field(s): Phonology

Subject Language(s): English (eng)
                     German (deu)

Language Family(ies): German

Areal Regions: Western Europe

Written In: English (eng)



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