Pragmatic assessment of schizophrenic bilinguals’ L1 and L2 use1

Abstract

This paper reports on a study investigating the pragmatic skills and deficits of schizophrenic bilinguals in their spontaneous first language (L1) and second language (L2) speech. Smit (2009) (see also Smit et al., this volume) argues that the locus of deficits in schizophrenic speech is semantics and suggests that a next step would be to investigate the pragmatic skills of schizophrenic bilinguals, given the close relationship between semantics and pragmatics. The study reported here followed up on Smit's suggestion and employed Prutting and Kirchner's (1987) Pragmatic Protocol to pragmatically assess the spontaneous L1 Afrikaans and L2 English use of four schizophrenic bilinguals who exhibited differential symptomatology, that is presented with different symptoms, as well as a difference in the severity thereof, when assessed in their L1 than when assessed in their L2. On the basis of the results of the assessment we conclude that such pragmatic assessment (i) provides insight into the nature of schizophrenic speech but (ii) does not provide insight into the phenomenon of differential symptomatology.