Neurodegeneration characterizes individuals with different dementia subtypes
(e.g., individuals with Alzheimer's Disease, Primary Progressive Aphasia, and
Parkinson's Disease), leading to progressive decline in cognitive, linguistic,
and social functioning. Speech and language impairments are early symptoms in
individuals with focal forms of neurodegenerative conditions, coupled with
deficits in cognitive, social, and behavioral domains. This paper reviews the
findings on language and communication deficits and identifies the effects of
dementia on the production and perception of discourse. It discusses findings
concerning (i) language function, cognitive representation, and impairment,
(ii) communicative competence, emotions, empathy, and theory-of-mind, and (iii)
speech-in-interaction. It argues that clinical discourse analysis can provide a
comprehensive assessment of language and communication skills in individuals,
which complements the existing neurolinguistic evaluation for (differential)
diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment efficacy evaluation.

本篇论文回顾了有关语言和沟通缺陷的发现，并分析了认知、社交、行为各方面的影响。文章探讨临床话语分析法，它可以为病人的语言和沟通技能提供全面评估，可以补充现有的神经语言学评估，用于诊断、预测和评估治疗的有效性。