Discourse production of healthy Cantonese speakers : an application of a multi-level analytic approach

Abstract

This study was the first attempt to apply a systematic multi-level analytic approach to spoken discourse. Sixteen measures addressing lexical, syntactic, discourse and informativeness level were adopted to analyze the discourse productions of the participants. Extracting language data of a single picture description task of 150 normal speakers, and a storytelling task of the 75 normal speakers from the Cantonese AphasiaBank, this study aimed to investigate correlations across linguistic levels, find out the predictors for informativeness, and explore the effect of age, education level and task. Results revealed correlations across linguistic levels exist, especially between lexical and syntactic level, and between lexical and discourse level. Story grammar total score was found to be a significant predictor for main concept score. It also confirmed the effects of education level and null effects of age on single picture description performance, and confirmed the inconsistent findings of task effects. The results clearly have clinical significance. First, it has established normative data with reference to age and education level. Second, it has contributed to the understanding of discourse by revealing relationships across different linguistic levels.