The DAIS-C: A small, specialised, spoken, schizophrenia corpus

Abstract

This paper describes the design and development of the DAIS-C (Discussing Abstract Ideas in Schizophrenia Corpus), a small, specialised corpus of spoken language in which speakers with a diagnosis of schizophrenia and those with no self-reported psychiatric or neuroleptic history were interviewed on the same topics. The corpus was constructed to allow for comparative analyses of speech behaviour in relation to linguistic creativity and formal thought disorder (FTD), but additional steps were taken to ensure that the corpus could be of use to other researchers and research questions. The present paper covers design decisions relevant to the construction of clinical corpora alongside information about the corpus of potential use to researchers interested in its use.