Signposts, Guideposts, and Stalls: Pragmatic and Discourse Markers in Dementia Discourse

In ordinary conversations, we don’t always pay much attention to “little words” like so or well or uh. Nevertheless, they play key roles in our interactions. As discourse markers, they signal boundaries between topics, they let us know new ones are starting, or they signal a slow-down in our exchange. They suggest how and why one of us said something. These are their pragmatic functions. As persons with dementia have increased problems with expressing themselves, they often use these little words more frequently, sometimes to hold their turn or keep their place in the conversations, and other times, to suggest additional meanings to us. Paying attention to but or so, for example, can let us infer what the person is trying to say, and we can keep talk flowing.