ABSTRACT
There is a long history of discourse analysis but its application in the field of communication sciences or related language disorder is relatively less established. Schiffrin, Tannen, and Hamilton (2001) provide a good overview of how different linguistic theories are demonstrated by conducting careful discourse analyses in native unimpaired speakers of a language. Specifically, whether and how oral and written discourse varied across language contexts, such as in the field of anthropology, communication, computer sciences, education, law, media (radio and television broadcasting and publishing), medicines, politics, psychology, and social sciences, were systematically discussed. Generally speaking, one major problem we can identify is that discipline-specific information on discourse analysis tends to have limited generalization to the clinical population, i.e., speakers with language deficits specific to different types of brain damages and/or neurological conditions. One of the very few textbooks that addresses clinical utility of discourse analysis in different adult clinical populations was presented by Bloom, Obler, de Santi, and Ehrlich (1994). Theoretical issues on different models of discourse production were examined and the relationships between discourse production and linguistic, cognitive, as well as social deficits across various clinical populations were summarized.
