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This study explores how the identity is constructed of elders who have Dementia of the Alzheimer Type (DAT) by examining the communicative disorder in daily interactions with other interlocutors. Specifically, this paper evaluates a conversation between one Chinese elder with early-stage DAT and the interviewer. It analyzes the identity construction processes in the discourse in depth, using the age-identity taxonomy, self-identity representation theory, and the pragmatic emergentist model. Based on the case study, this paper confirms the five dimensions of age-identity taxonomy provided by Coupland as: (1) disclosure of chronological age, (2) age-related categories/role reference, (3) age-identity concerning health, decrement, and death, (4) adding time-past perspective, and (5) self-association with the past. Meanwhile, two more approaches to the age-identity taxonomy were developed, i.e., address behavior and cross-generational contrast. Self-identity to realize interactional goals is typically constructed at the individual level, although rarely at the relational level. The DAT elder conducts compensation in the interaction by adopting verbal and non-verbal strategies to bridge cognitive disorders such as memory loss, word-finding difficulty, or meeting the desire to enhance the pragmatic effects of their identity. This shows that the self-identity construction also facilitates the DAT elders in generating a discourse strategy when encountering pragmatic impairment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alzheimer's disease (AD) can manifest itself with prominent language dysfunction. Incompleteness in discourse refers to the lack of indispensable sentence- constructing elements that hinder communication fluency and accuracy. The current study investigates how the pattern of incompleteness is associated with the descriptive discourse produced by elders without AD and those with different stages of AD. The Chinese discourse samples were collected from the picture description of 40 elders with mild probable AD (Mini- Mental State Examination (MMSE) 21–26, Montreal Cognitive Assessment Scale- Basic (MoCA-B) 15–19), 40 elders with moderate probable AD (MMSE 11–20, MoCA-B 10–14), and 40 controls (MMSE 26–29, MoCA-B 24–29). The total production of incomplete sentences and six incompleteness features were examined. The Mild AD, Moderate AD, and Control groups differed in the total output of the incomplete sentence. Group differences also emerged in four incompleteness features: missing subject, missing predicate, missing object, and missing functional word. The Moderate AD group differed from the Mild AD group with respect to most significant features, while Mild AD and Control groups were very similar. The results suggested that AD impairs the sentence construction ability of Chinese elders, especially at the later stage. These statistically significant differences between the groups might provide some references when diagnosing the risk and possibility of cognitive impairment of Chinese elders, facilitating the design of clinical evaluation or screening for probable AD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The question of the formation of gerontolinguistics in China as a relatively new scientific branch for the country is considered. The relevance of the study is due to the high growth rate of the elderly Chinese population. The authors of the article offer an overview of gerontolinguistic works in China, selected on the basis of an analysis of journal articles, monographic studies, dissertations placed in Chinese libraries. It is noted that gerontolinguistics in China began its formation only in the 21st century, while in Western science the problems of working with the elderly began to be intensively studied in the second half of the 20th century. It is argued that Chinese gerontolinguistics is based on the traditions of Western science, taking into account Chinese realities. An overview of the works of Chinese scientists on gerontolinguistics is given, from 2003 to the present. It is shown that during this period, multimodal studies of the language and speech of various geront groups, including people suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, are especially actively carried out. The tasks that gerontological research solves are described, including the prevention and treatment of Alzheimer’s disease, improving the quality of life of older people, and identifying their preferences in the sociocultural sphere, for example, advertising. To solve these problems, the possibilities of artificial intelligence are actively used.

The article presents obstacles (barriers) indicated by young people that make communication with seniors difficult. The author discusses selected cognitive phenomena (e.g. cognitive disharmony, features of the senile mentality) and some problems concerning language and communication (e.g. indistinct articulation) as well as seniors' hearing difficulty, all contributing to the deterioration of message reception. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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