ABOUT THE NEUROLINGUISTICS OF THE IMPLICATURES
A B S T R A C T O F A S T U D Y
JULIANO LUÍS F O N T A N A R I *
SUMMARY — T a k i n g i n t o a c c o u n t r e c e n t d a t a o n l i n g u i s t i c s of p r o d u c t i o n a n d c o m p r e h e n s i o n in a p h a s i a , a p r o t o c o l w a s e x e c u t e d i n c l u d i n g t h e s e v e r a l t y p e s of i m p l i c a t u r e s . T h e protocol w a s a p p l i e d t o 90 s u b j e c t s classified a c c o r d i n g t o t h e localization of c e r e b r a l lesions, a s s h o w n b y C T . R e s u l t s a r e d i s c u s s e d i n r e p o r t t o clinical m a n i f e s t a t i o n s of b r a i n lesions, a s a p h a s i a , a p r a x i a , a g n o s i a , a n d i n t e l l i g e n c e a n d p r a g m a t i c s d i s t u r b a n c e s . D i s c u s s i o n s u p p o r t s t h e i m p r e s s i o n t h a t t h e r e is a m e c h a n i s m t h a t c o r r e l a t e s e x t r a - l i n g u i s t i c s c o n t e x t s w i t h t h e ' s a i d ' a t t h e r i g h t h e m i s p h e r e .
Sobre a neurolinguística das implicaturas: s ú m u l a d e um estudo.
R E S U M O — C o n s i d e r a n d o d a d o s a c e r c a d a l i n g u í s t i c a d a p r o d u ç ã o e c o m p r e e n s ã o e m a f a s i a s , foi e l a b o r a d o p r o t o c o l o q u e a b r a n g e os d i v e r s o s t i p o s d e i m p l i c a t u r a s . O p r o t o c o l o foi aplica-d o a 90 p a c i e n t e s classificaaplica-dos s e g u n aplica-d o o t i p o aplica-d e l e s ã o c e r e b r a l e v i aplica-d e n c i a aplica-d a p e l a TC. Os r e s u l t a d o s s ã o d i s c u t i d o s t o m a n d o ' em c o n t a a s m a n i f e s t a ç õ e s c l í n i c a s d a s lesões c e r e b r a i s , como afasia, a p r a x i a , a g n o s i a e a l t e r a ç õ e s d a i n t e l i g ê n c i a e d a p r a g m á t i c a . A d i s c u s s ã o p e r m i t e a c e i t a r a i m p r e s s ã o d a e x i s t ê n c i a d e u m a p a r e l h o ('device') q u e c o r r e l a c i o n a (pa-r e a d o (pa-r d e ) c o n t e x t o s e x t (pa-r a - l i n g u í s t i c o s com o ' d i t o ' ( a s p e c t o s s e m â n t i c o s f o (pa-r m a i s ) , a p o s t o no h e m i s f é r i o c e r e b r a l d i r e i t o .
T h e objective of this a b s t r a c t is to report main aspects of a study on the neurolinguistics of the implicatures. T h i s s t u d y w a s presented in full as a D i s s e r t a -tion i. In the first p a r t , n e u r o p s y c h o l o g y and neurolinguistics a r e revised, especially the most recent revisions a b o u t linguistics a s p e c t s of production and comprehension in a p h a s i a : the linguistics model in the description and interpretation of the a p h a s i a — the linguistics Occam r a z o r , the lexical and the anomia, definitions and hypothesis, the mnemic-verbal deposit problem and its modalities of evocations, synthatic and semantic categories and the aphasic performance, G a r r e t ' s model to linguistic p r o -duction and the a p h a s i c . Once having d e m o n s t r a t e d t h a t the applications of lingustics dates in the cerebral p a t h o l o g y does not go further the lexical, at the second p a r t it is intended to enter the study of the p h a s e , to observe if a recent liguistic model — the Grice's implicatures — can explain the performance of multiple g r o u p s of subjects with cerebral lesions. Grice h a d a s principal p r e o c u p a t i o n to explain how can the signification of the s p e a k e r be different of the signification of the strictly said (limited to semantic, in the meaning of F r e g e ) . T o explain his theory, he offers an example t h a t h a d became classical: ' S u p p o s e t h a t ( A ) a n d ( B ) a r e t a l k i n g about a common friend ( C ) t h a t is now w o r k i n g a t a b a n k . ( A ) a s k s ( B ) how ( C ) is doing at his new j o b , and ( B ) a n s w e r s : ' O h ! Very well, I think; he likes his friends a n d hasn't been a r r e s t e d yet'. At this point ( A ) m u s t look for w h a t ( B ) w a s implicating ( ( ' i m -p l i c a t e ' ) , w h a t he w a s s u g g e s t i n g , or even w h a t he meant by s a y i n g t h a t ( C ) h a d n ' t
I n s t i t u t o d e N e u r o l o g i a d a I r m a n d a d e d a S a n t a C a s a de M i s e r i c ó r d i a d e P o r t o A l e g r e : * N e u r o l o g i s t , A s s i s t a n t P r o f e s s o r .
been arrested yet. T h e answer could had been s o m e t h i n g like: ' ( C ) is the kind of person t h a t tends to fall in t e n t a t i o n s provoked by his occupation', or 'his colleagues are indeed very u n p l e a s a n t a n d unfaithful'. ( B ) ' s a n s w e r s a y s t h a t ( C ) is fine a n d hadn't been a r r e s t e d yet and implicates t h a t this could had happened. T o Grice the 'said' is the signification expressed literally in its semantic value therefore excluded of its impli-c a t u r e s . T h e r e are t w o basiimpli-cal types of impliimpli-catures: the impli-conventional, whiimpli-ch is linked to the conventional meaning of the word, not being calculed from extra-lin-guistics contexts, and the conversational, t h a t have to be calculated from the 'said' and the extra-linguistic context.
A protocol w a s executed with twenty test a s s e m b l i n g Grice's examples, including all the types of implicatures and applied with the Raven progressive matrices and the token test, to 90 subjects, classified by the localization of their cerebral lesions a s shown by the C T , and distributed as follows: 30 subjects with left hemisphere focal lesion of whom 24 were aphasic and 6 were not; 20 subjects with right hemisphere focal lesions; 20 subjects with diffuse encephalic lesions ( d e m e n t s , excluding those with multifocal lesions) and 20 control subjects without encephalic lesions a n d having the s a m e provenience,social, economic and y e a r s of scholarship. W e can enumerate the following done w o r k s : (1) validation of the reduced version of the token t e s t ; (2) observation of the performance in the Raven progressive matrices of p a t i e n t s with cerebral focal lesions; (3) o b s e r v a t i o n s on the relation between the localization of lesion and the a p h a s i c s s y n d r o m e s ; ( 4 ) o b s e r v a t i o n s on the comprehension of Grice's implicatures provided by the performance at the implicatures' protocol: the im-plicatures' protocol s e p a r a t e d the controls from the demented and from the aphasics. In the g r o u p of the demented, the performance at the protocol va-ried and correlated to the Raven progressive matrices, and not the token test, showing t h a t the protocol avaliates 'intelligence in l a n g u a g e . T h e analysis of the e r r o r s s h o w s t h a t the g r o u p s make mistakes because of different motives. It w a s observed t h a t the dements and a little bit less those with right hemisphere lesions have difficulties in correlate extra-linguistic contexts with the 'said', manifested by mistakes t h a t p r e d o m i n a t e in these two g r o u p s , but not in the aphasics, the subjects with left he-misphere lesions but not aphasics and the controls. T h e r e is left an impression t h a t there is a mechanism t h a t correlates extra-linguistics contexts with the 'said', at the right hemisphere.
Acknowledgement — The author wishes to express the acknowledgements to Profa.
Dra. F e r y a l Yavas by her kind orientation in the prosecution of this study.
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