Pragmatics based neurolinguistics
Results of my research, including theoretical reasoning and empirical findings have been published in international journals, edited books and conference proceedings. My research is, however, part of a coherent program, involving a selection and development of theoretical frameworks as well as of empirical methods and integrating perspectives from several disciplines. Publication in articles does not allow extended reasoning and pulling together results into a more comprehensive description of complex phenomena, relating to theories, and providing explanations and links between different disciplines and types of findings. A book allows this as well as presenting my research in relation to the current state-of-the-art in a number of relevant disciplines, such as linguistics, neuroscience, cognitive science, communication studies, speech pathology and information and communication technology.
The book presents neurolinguistics research concerning especially: 1) Pragmatics and Communication related to brain functions and brain damage, 2) Activity based Communication Analysis, 3) Embodied Communication, and
4) Multimodal communication, but also 5) Communication involving Embodied Communicate Agents and robots, and 6) Intercultural communication
The most important results and publications from the project
The purpose of the project was to collect and integrate different parts of my research about pragmatics and neurolinguistics, in particular about aphasia and related diagnoses, in one volume.
The most important result is, thus, the book manuscript that has been written during 2018, the first version of which is now finished. The book consists of an introductory chapter, which explains its content and how it ties together theories methods and results. The main subsequent parts concern (i) pragmatics and neurolinguistics/aphasiology, (ii) activity based communication analysis, (iii) embodied communication, and (iv) multimodal communication. They are followed by two more summarizing chapters on intercultural communication and about distributed communication, AI, communication technology and communication aids. Finally, the different parts are, again, pulled together and related to relevant theories and methods and to the inter-connectedness of my research.
It has been important for me to be able to write a connected volume about my research and of things relevant for my research. This can, hopefully, serve as inspiration for other researchers and also be used in education. It has also been very stimulating and challenging to present how the different areas of my research are related to each other and can be combined in an integrated approach. This can also be an inspiration for others in the same area.
The actual publication of the book has had to be postponed, since somewhat more time is needed for final editing and revisions and for determining publication channel/-s, which is not unproblematic, given the requirement of open access.
One of the reasons/motivations for writing the volume was and still is that research in this area depends heavily on interdisciplinarity when it comes to searching for “the whole picture”. Research in the area has become more and more specialized and focused on narrowly restricted research questions. It has developed in two different directions, one more “pragmatic”, mainly studying communication and social issues, one more experimental and measurement-oriented, focusing on very specific hypothesis-testing of linguistic and cognitive details. Both approaches are needed and justified, but attempts to unite them and make each of them internally coherent and integrated, to make them compatible and to see what they contribute in a broader context are also needed, not least to fill “gaps in between”, which can easily arise, and to stimulate contact and communication between different approaches. The task to try to approach this linking, is vast, but the book is an attempt to contribute to this. It takes its point of departure in a pragmatics based approach and from this approach it seeks to integrate different parts within pragmatics based research (which are also mostly studied separately) and link them to different, relevant theories and methods which relates to the area but are sometimes external to it. The need for more integration based research and research information is considerable and only a limited part can be covered in this project.
What the project has resulted in, except publications
The focus of the project has been exclusively on finishing a first version of the book manuscript, since the project time was very short. External activity related to the book has therefore been postponed until after the project time. The writing has generated a number of ideas, primarily for dissemination and relation to other research, education and clinical application. (See below.)
New research question that have been generated through the project
The project has provided an opportunity to reflect further on my area of research. My research has mostly been innovative and introduced new perspectives in neurolinguistics and aphasiology and their applications, clinically as well as in education programs. The writing has provided a more integrated theoretical basis, which has not been presented before. This has, in turn, generated a multitude of possible research question in relation to the different parts, taken separately, and in particular to possible projects in the intersections between different areas.
Some examples are:
How is it possible to go further with meta studies, which, on one hand contain the theories, models and research results that have inspired me and my research, on the other hand continuously integrate new results from different branches of neurolinguistics research, which can give new pieces of information, but have an original focus on more narrow questions?
How is it possible to present and transfer results of such meta studies to clinical applications and to education programs, avoiding too much of a time lag and with a presentation strategy that generates understanding of how the bigger picture and its parts are related – given the relatively limited time of relevant education programs?
How can methods for therapy and research in neurolinguistics and aphasiology with a pragmatic perspective be further developed and adjusted to the development of society with increasing digitalization, use of AI, internationalization and more intercultural communication?
How can a common basis for interdisciplinary research in neurolinguistics and aphasiology be achieved?
There are, thus, many possible needs to fill, in part by more specific studies within the areas treated in the book, in part, and not least, by combining theories, methods and research results and applying them. The book is in itself an attempt to present a way of addressing this need.
The international anchoring of the project
The book can, for example, be spread through the COST Action network CATs (Collaboration of Aphasia Trialists), of which I am a member, also belonging to the thematic group “Societal Impact and Reintegration”, which should be able to benefit from the book and promote it, since its topics are central to this particular theme. It can also be spread through education programs, mainly for speech and language therapists, but also for linguists, psychologists and other medical professions in my network of contacts in Europe, the US, South Africa, Canada, Australia and Malaysia. The first presentation will be at the Nordic Aphasia Conference (NAC) 2019 in Turku.