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Research in Clinical Pragmatics: The Essence of a New Philosophy, the State of the Art and Future Research

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Further Advances in Pragmatics and Philosophy: Part 2 Theories and Applications

Part of the book series: Perspectives in Pragmatics, Philosophy & Psychology ((PEPRPHPS,volume 20))

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Abstract

A relatively new discipline is being born. Clinical pragmatics is a new research field mainly dedicated to investigate cognitive underpinnings of pragmatics, using as a starting point of investigations the alterations showed by patients in which pragmatics is, in such a way, altered.

Is this field of research promising? If so, for what specifically? How could this discipline be developed in the future for better results?

In order to answer this question, in this study, I review the state of the art of clinical pragmatics through Louise Cummings’s Research in Clinical Pragmatics, that collects the best recent developments of the discipline taken on from the world’s most expert researchers in the field. I analysed in detail and analytically discussed and organized all the essays considered. Finally I discussed challenges for methodology and I suggested some guidelines for future researches in this field.

My review shows that today we dispose a lot of scientific data in clinical pragmatics, but we need to collect other data and above all to theoretically reflect specifically on the following topics: the typical development of Theory of Mind (ToM), social knowledge, executive functions, the relation between executive functions and ToM, reference, presupposition, conversational implicatures, the method to measure pragmatics skills, aetiology of pragmatic behaviours, cognitive profile of patients with pragmatic alterations, developmental aspects of pragmatics, longitudinal development of pragmatics in typical and a-typical subjects, efficacy of interventions, evaluation of impact of pragmatic disorders in patients’ life, patients’ pragmatic strengths, the impact of transcultural differences in pragmatic skills, philosophical investigations on the possibility to translate classical pragmatic concepts into quantitative measurement, pragmatic performances of bilingual subjects.

Clinical pragmatics is a research area which is booming. It is a territory which is still little explored where the interdisciplinary meeting (typical of cognitive sciences approach) between pragmatics, philosophy of language, philosophy of mind, neuroscience and linguistics promises the processing of prolific philosophical theories and a deeper understanding of some of the most widespread diseases in the world, such as autism or Parkinson’s. In this direction Research in Clinical Pragmatics is a good example of how to prolifically investigate in clinical pragmatics.

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Abbreviations

AD:

Alzheimer’s Dementia

ADHD:

Attention Hyperactivity Disorder

ASD:

Autism Spectrum Disorders

CP:

Cerebral Palsy

HL:

Hearing Loss

ID:

Intellectual Disability

non-AD:

non-Alzheimer’s Dementias

PD:

Parkinson’s Disease without Dementia

PLI:

Pragmatic language impairment

RHD:

Right-Hemisphere Damage

TBI:

Traumatic Brain Injury

ToM:

Theory of Mind

VI:

Visual Impairment

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Linguistic Centre of Messina University (CLAM), Messina, Italy

    Paola Pennisi

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  1. Paola Pennisi
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Correspondence to Paola Pennisi .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Cognitive Science, University of Messina, Barcellona, Italy

    Alessandro Capone

  2. Department SUM, University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy

    Marco Carapezza

  3. University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy

    Franco Lo Piparo

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Pennisi, P. (2019). Research in Clinical Pragmatics: The Essence of a New Philosophy, the State of the Art and Future Research. In: Capone, A., Carapezza, M., Lo Piparo, F. (eds) Further Advances in Pragmatics and Philosophy: Part 2 Theories and Applications. Perspectives in Pragmatics, Philosophy & Psychology, vol 20. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-00973-1_20

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-00973-1_20

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-00972-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-00973-1

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