Abstract
ABSTRACT Objective: this study aimed to investigate gestures in the speech-language pathology clinic and the dominant ideology in the light of the Materialist Discourse Analysis. Methods: twelve speech-language pathologists who work in different clinical fields were interviewed to investigate the main discursive thread supporting their discourse. These semi-open interviews were recorded and the discursive data were later transcribed. Fragments were extracted and analyzed from the above mentioned perspective. Results: the analysis shows that the conducting thread of the therapists’ discourse is the positivist ideology of Science, which fragments the subjects, body and language allocating speech and gesture in a hierarchy system where gesture is subordinated to the former. The language materiality shows an unconscious identification of the therapists with the signifier “Fono-Speech, Audio-Audio, Logia-Study” (Fonoaudiologia, or Speech-language Pathology in Portuguese), since the return of speech and their professional identity is brought up. From this perspective, there are formations that challenge the dominant ideology welcoming gesture as an important tool in the clinic, both in evaluation and treatment. Conclusion: the dominant ideological belief shows a hierarchical and historical association between speech and gesture that excludes gesture of the speech-language pathology clinic as it represents a threat to the speech status and the identity of this professional.
Highlights
The speech-language pathology clinic is characterized by a subject who has symptoms manifested by slips, stumbles in speech, repetitions, vocalizations, gestures and silences
The gesture produced in the speech-language pathology clinic in the therapist-patient relationship is seen in this study as a socio-historical process, which affects and is affected by the meanings produced from the interrelation of the semiotic systems of the subjects
The language in its authoritarianism meets the initial purpose of this study, that is, the questioning of the gesture in the speech-language pathology clinic that referred us to the speech status through the discourse analysis of the professional speech-language pathologist
Summary
The speech-language pathology clinic is characterized by a subject who has symptoms manifested by slips, stumbles in speech, repetitions, vocalizations, gestures and silences. According to Freire[1], many of these manifestations are observed in language development, the subject of the clinic has a demand for an enigmatic symptom that persists and causes suffering. It is estimated that one in two hundred people is unable to communicate through speech due to neurological, physical, emotional and cognitive factors[2]. The gesture produced in the speech-language pathology clinic in the therapist-patient relationship is seen in this study as a socio-historical process, which affects and is affected by the meanings produced from the interrelation of the semiotic systems of the subjects. The scientific basis for the definition of gesture is similar to the studies of McNeill[5], one of the greatest scholars on the subject
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