Background: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and social pragmatic communication disorder (SPCD) are two neurodevelopmental disorders with many similarities in affected individuals' impairments in social-communicative and pragmatic development. A central question pertaining to their differentiation concerns whether the distinction is truly…

Although misunderstandings as such have been extensively studied, the ways in which problems of understanding are avoided--especially in cross-cultural communication--have so far received limited attention. This article examines over 24 h of private conversation data from seven established, intercultural couples who use lingua franca English as…

This study investigates Polish expatriates' stories of encounters with local personnel in a Chinese subsidiary of a Western multinational company. A narrative analysis of the stories produced important insights into Polish-Chinese communication in an intra-subsidiary context. Low proficiency in the host language was a serious obstacle to…

This article discusses ways in which misunderstandings arise in Tactile Australian Sign Language (Tactile Auslan) and how they are resolved. Of particular interest are the similarities to and differences from the same processes in visually signed and spoken conversation. This article draws on detailed conversation analysis (CA) and demonstrates…

Background: Even though research has increasingly focused on the qualitative features of natural conversations, which have improved the communication therapy for hearing-impaired individuals (HI) and familiar partners (FP), very little is known about the interactions that occur outside clinical settings. Aims: This study investigated qualitatively…

Background: Aphasiologists often research, assess and treat linguistic impairment and its consequences for daily life separately. Studies that link the language used by people with aphasia to routine communicative activities may expand the linguistic forms treated as relevant for successful communication by people with aphasia. Previous research…

When a problem of understanding arises for a hearing-impaired recipient in the course of a conversation, and is detected, repairing that problem is only one of several possible courses of action for participants. Another possibility is the collaborative closing of the part of the conversation which has proved problematic for understanding, to…

It is well established that language development in children with autism is disturbed in a number of ways, and evidence is accumulating that their emerging linguistic skills may be related to interactive competences such as joint attention, imitation and certain aspects of play as has been found in normally developing children. The present study…

The report examines research on differences in the interpretations of discrepant and nondiscrepant messages by normal and emotionally disturbed children and reports on a study in which tone of voice and verbal content were discrepant in their affective meaning. A review of the research on discrepant messages, their delivery, interpretation, and…

Like legal language, medical language is a private language, a separate stratum containing some words specially defined for medical purposes, some existing only in the medical vocabulary, and some adding precision or solemnity. These characteristics often cause a breakdown in patient-doctor communication. Analysis of data obtained from prototype…