UH as a pragmatic marker in dementia discourse

Abstract

In this paper we draw from variationist analysis and ethnographic and sociopragmatic approaches to examine conversations with Maureen Littlejohn who moved from mild into moderate Alzheimer's disease over the six years of the study. As dementia increases, people often find it difficult to use pragmatic particles such as well, so or you know. We explore how Ms Littlejohn used UH, often dismissed by researchers as only marking hesitations, as a pragmatic particle in conversations with students and with the first author. In our analysis we adopt categories used by González (2004) in her exploration of the pragmatic force of markers such as well, so, then, and anyway in both English and Catalan. We demonstrate that, even in her last conversations, Ms Littlejohn was able to use UH in a variety of pragmatically meaningful ways to express many of the categories identified by González.