IV. When May Calls Home

Abstract

Using conversation analysis, this article analyses the opening moments of naturally occurring telephone conversations between a woman with Alzheimer's disease and her daughter and son-in-law. Drawing on the large body of work on ordinary conversational openings between adults without cognitive impairments, we show that this Alzheimer's patient is a virtually fully competent interactant in the routinized aspects of call-openings (summons—answer, recognitions, greetings, `howaryou', and the pre-emption of `how- aryou's to do urgency). We show, however, that in the very act of displaying these cognitive and social competencies in conversation with her daughter, she also reveals serious memory loss, which has devastating consequences for the mother—daughter relationship. In developing this research, we hope to enable families better to cope with the consequences of Alzheimer's disease.

Keywords

call-openings conversation analysis communication communication deficits dementia memory mother—daughter relationship

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Alzheimer's Society (2006) `Facts about Dementia', accessed 8 May 2006. Available: http://www.alzheimers.org.uk/Facts_about_dementia/index.htm.

Drew, P. (2002) `Out of Context', Language and Communication 22: 477—94.

Jefferson, G. (1980) `On “Trouble-Premonitory” Response to Inquiry', Sociological Inquiry 50: 153—85.

Jefferson, G. (2004) `Glossary of Transcript Symbols with an Introduction ', in G. Lerner (ed.) Conversation Analysis: Studies from the First Generation, pp. 13—31. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Orange, J.B. , Lubinski, R.B. and Higginbotham, J. (1996) `Conversational Repair by Individuals with Dementia of the Alzheimer's Type', Journal of Speech and Hearing Research 39: 881—95.

Pomerantz, A. (1986) `Extreme Case Formulations: A Way of Legitimizing Claims', Human Studies 9: 219—30.

Sacks, H. (1992) Lectures in Conversation, Vol. 2. Oxford: Blackwell.

Schegloff, E.A. (1968) `Sequencing in Conversational Openings', American Anthropologist 70: 1075—95.

Schegloff, E.A. (1979) `Identification and Recognition in Telephone Conversation Openings', in G. Psathas (ed.) Everyday Language, pp. 23—75. New York : Irvington.

10.

Schegloff, E.A. (1986) `The Routine as Achievement', Human Studies 9: 111—51.

11.

Schegloff, E.A. (2007) `Conveying Who You Are: The Presentation of Self, Strictly Speaking', in E.A. Schlegloff Sequence Organization in Interaction: A Primer in Conversation Analysis Volume 1, pp. 125—51. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

12.

Shaw, R. and Kitzinger, C. (2007, in press) `Memory in Interaction: An Analysis of Repeat Calls to a Home Birth Helpline', Research on Language and Social Interaction 40(1): 117—44.

13.

Watson, C.M. , Chenery, H.J. and Carter, M.S. (1999) `An Analysis of Trouble and Repair in the Natural Conversations of People with Dementia of the Alzheimer's Type', Aphasiology 13(3): 195—218.

14.

Wilkinson, S. (1991) `Feminism & Psychology: From Critique to Reconstruction ', Feminism & Psychology 1(1): 5—18.