Micro and macrostructure discourse analysis in persons with idiopathic Parkinson’s disease

Abstract

ABSTRACTObjectives: Studies analyzing the macrostructure and microstructure in the narrative samples of participants with Parkinson’s disease (PD) are limited in the Indian context. This study investigates the micro and macrostructure discourse analysis by using a picture elicited narrative discourse task in Kannada speaking persons with idiopathic PD.Method: Two groups comprising 12 Kannada-speaking individuals with idiopathic PD in the age range of 60–85 years and 12 neuro-typical individuals matched on age, sex, socioeconomic status, language, dialect, and knowledge of other languages participated in the study. To assess their discourse skills, participants were provided with a series of eight pictures to narrate a story for a minimum of 2–3 min. All the samples were transcribed orthographically and were divided into communication units. The communication units were analyzed in terms of micro and macro structures. The macrostructure analysis included the measures such as initial event (IE), an action aiming at resolving at resolving problem (ARP), and outcome of action (OA). The microstructure analysis included the proportion of content words (PCW), proportion of functional words (PFW), proportion of morphemes (PM), total number of different words (NDW) and type token ratio (TTR).Results: The results revealed that there was a significant difference between the two groups on several of the macro and microstructure measures. Specifically there was a significant difference on ARP, PCW, PFW, NDW and TTR.Conclusion: Based on the results it can be concluded that the micro and certain aspects of macrostructure discourse skills of Kannada speakers with idiopathic PD were affected. Thus, in addition to speech impairment, language structure is also affected in persons with PD.