ABSTRACT
The language abilities of adults with dementia of Alzheimer’s type (DAT) have come under increasing scrutiny in the cognitive neurosciences. The bulk of research to date suggests that language skills deteriorate in DAT over time in a characteristic manner with semantic and some pragmatic aspects of language far more vulnerable to impairment than syntax and phonology. Most studies have addressed issues of semantic–lexical processing, and have not focused on discourse, or language that extends beyond the sentence level.
