Aspects of Confused Speech

Aspects of Confused Speech: A Study of Verbal Interaction Between Confused and Normal Speakers examines the confused speech of people who have been diagnosed as having dementing illnesses. Pamela Shakespeare documents how particular problems or troubles arise in talk, how these are dealt with, how the label of confusion comes to be applied, and how these factors are related to context. She strives to keep a balance between the idea of confused talk as an aspect of ordinary talk and confused talk as talk from which confused speakers cannot easily extricate themselves. A central theme of this work is that people diagnosed as confused in their speech do not all behave in the same way, and, in her examination, Shakespeare distinguishes between minimally active, moderately active, and very active confused speakers.