Aspies and language use!!

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OK so prepare for me to nerd out a bit about linguistics, BUT...

I was watching this video produced by a teenager with Asperger's, and I went ahead and did a linguistic analysis of it. What I'd like to know is if you see any of my findings in yourself, or if you disagree with my analysis and why, or if you notice something I didn't! Also please ask if you have any questions about the terminology. I'm thinking I may use this as an independent project in the future. It could be really useful in forensic linguistics and also in helping aspies recognize more specific ways in which their language use varies from NT if they'd like to modify it.

OK, the video (I only analyzed the first minute or so):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbgUjmeC-4o



Transcript:
“Hi. My name is Alex Olinkiewicz. That’s right, Alex Olinkiewicz. I’m A teenager diagnosed with…Asperger’s. Now, some of you prob’ly don’t know what Asperger’s is. Well, you see, there are the people who have autism, and there are the people who do not. I’m in the middle. I am half-autistic and half-noT. Now, s- some people have trouble understanding the mind of an au-…of an autistic person, though it’s really hard to prob’ly understand the mind of A person who has Asperger’s. B’cause, even though we can communicate with you people, we are not fully one-hundred percent exactly we can communicate. And, since we look or behave exactly like you, sometimes when we act in our autistic way, it just seems like, w-, you can’t really understand us. …As in, I prob’ly appear to be a perfectly good teenager, and a mature…one. And, what can make me fee-, seem kind of weird is that, because I am half-autistic and half-not, I have the maturity…of…a…16-year-old boy, or a full-grown adult, and I also have the childlike behavior…of a 6-year-old child.”


Analysis:

Interesting, NT deviations:

• Semi-formal speech (lack of contractions, use of complete sentences, etc.). Falls within the range of “nerdy” American speech, but seems generally appropriate for the setting of a video explanation.
• “Prob’ly”: standard American teenager abbreviation.
• Presence of the “u” sound in “though”. Is he from the North Carolina area?
• Normal stuttering. Typical for any adult.
Example:
o “it just seems like, w-, you…”. Here he initially was going to say something like, “We’re difficult to understand”, but
wanted to shift the focus from aspies to the listener as the one with the difficulty. This is standard in teenagers:
they don’t want to feel abnormal, so they shift abnormalities onto the part of the observer.
o “what can make me f-, seem kind of weird”. Again he was going to say “feel”, but didn’t want to show vulnerability
and so shifted the perspective to that of the outsider.
• Some jumbled speech. This is likely a teenager/developmental issue and not related to Asperger’s. Notice I am referring mostly to the use of verbs and the midstream change of intention (from “we are” to “we can” – midstream he likely wanted to prevent self-definition and rather talk about defining his capabilities). The modifiers are still displaced in a slightly abnormal way.
Example:
o “we are not fully one-hundred percent exactly we can communicate”


Deviation I’m not sure about:

• Slight misuse of words. I’ve heard other people do this, so it may be NT, but it seems like something that could be related to stunted language development as well.
Example:
o “I prob’ly appear to be a perfectly good teenager”. Possibly intended word: normal.



Abnormal deviations:

• I won’t cover deviations in intonation or stress because I can’t record that through text, although there do exist some abnormalities in these areas.
• Long pauses (represented by ellipses) in irregular places. Seem to precede emotionally difficult concepts.
Examples:
o “diagnosed with…Asperger’s”
o “understanding the mind of an au-…of an autistic person”
o “mature…one”
o “maturity…of…a…16-year-old boy”
• Abnormally-pronounced stuttering. May be unrelated to Asperger’s. Also may be an NT trait, but its presence is particularly noted because of the emphasis/force with which the stuttered phonemes are uttered (an NT person might lower their voice if they’re unsure of what they’re going to say). Seems to correspond with a lack of linguistic development, because I’ve noticed that some children do this.
Examples:
o “s- some people have trouble understanding”
o “understand the mind of an au-…of an autistic person”
• Hypercorrection.
Examples:
o Long “a” sound used in article
o Final “t” pronounced (generally dropped in spoken language, particularly among teenagers)
o “B’cause”. This is interesting because the standard teenage spoken version of this word is “’cause”. However, in the
setting of a video, one might say, “because”. This seems to be a mix of the two…my interpretation is that he
hears “’cause” regularly and then hypercorrects it to “b’cause”.
• Modifier displacement. Although this occurs in the general population, it’s generally a symbol of stunted language development and often comes with a low IQ. Since I doubt that’s the case in this situation, it’s more likely a small sign of linguistic differences between aspies and the NT.
Examples:
o “it’s really hard to prob’ly understand”
o “we are not fully one-hundred percent exactly we can communicate”




I told you I was bored!! Any feedback is warmly welcomed.

Where shall I begin.....Lab Pet is a HFA. That Auties and Aspies (yes, there's a distinction) have socio/language differences is well-documented. Specifically, what is your point? You propose no hypothesis, merely already known quasi-observations (?) which may be haphazard at best. Non sequitor.

Unsure of your objective. Further, the obvious has been stated - thank you for the astute assessment. I guess.
Apparent you are NT.

Lab Pet is a (partially) mute HFA, btw. You can check my video clip, URL below. You candor is appreciated, really, but still uncertain of the motive/objective? Are you just curious? Voyeuristic? You have offered your subjective linguistic interpretation - with a study of N=1. Noted.

Next?

http://www.wrongplanet.net/modules.php? ... &p=1627512

The above thread is relevant. Remember: You are assigning your values/assessment that speech is THE modicum of communication - this may be arbitrary. Further, why might you suggest Aspies want to modify? Specify, NT. Do you mean Aspies (& Auties) should modify our ways? Why? Would this serve to suit you better? Why would this matter? Implies self-righteousness on your behalf, which is presumptous at best. Lab Pet doesn't intend to confront, but your motive is unclear.

You offer scattered and subjective observation that is cursory. Lastly, you write, "I told you I was bored!!" Then why write? If you're bored, then why should be bother to read an inane assessment? Lab Pet is at computational error with NT Etoile_Estrella.

I read that and didn't get it as well, other than getting bored, but nice.

Though I do not understand the intentions presented in language unless they're spelled out, I was able to follow the convention and mechanics quite well. Hot

I think you are reading too much into things, BUT....

I'll state such bluntly - note enough history on the boy is known, really, to accurately identify linguistic patterns viewed as possesing either NT or ASD qualities. Add to that your own statements on the fact that, yes, the person in question is simply a teenager. Cross-reference with a large controlled group of people the same age from the same region would provide better results - but one isolated video posted on the internet does not. Besides which; no stressers are known prior to the boy recording the video. Bias unknown, assume none or moderate levels? Are you analysing the boy in typical or atypical sense, to find a median value? Again, I'll state, too little information for any valuable results - too which ends, having had you not state any intent or hypothesis, what can the minimal results gained be measured against?

I was tired last night. I should have read what lab pet wrote! She was more blunt than I was, but said the same kind of things. Heck, I guess many did.

I have seen AS writing all over the board. Some was poor. Some was pretty good and eloquent. I saw no real pattern.

Mistakes, or oddities, like 'Etoile_Estrella' pointed out, were NEVER so cut and dried. Today, in the US, and I am sure in other places also, it is even LESS cut and dried. I USED to be able to tell you if a person was from the US, and WHERE they were from! TODAY, GOOD LUCK! You are lucky even to narrow it down to a COUNTRY!
BTW the country CAN make a difference in such things as 'Etoile_Estrella' was talking about.

Well my thought is that it is often hard to translate what is in our head into words, I myself sometimes do it a lot when I have to do a speach of somekind. I can start off saying one thing, but then I come up with a better choice of words and start in what might apear confusing in why I chose the first words in the first place. This is why I myself try to think everything up in advance, when I saw the vid I understood why he was doing what he was doing.

ACK! Wow, some harsh reviews. OK, let me address some of the questions/comments:

1. What is your objective?

I did state very briefly my objective but I’d like to elaborate. I’m primarily interested in forensic linguistics. If I could isolate the key linguistic factors that have a tendency to show up in aspie speech, it could be extremely useful as evidence both in historical and criminological cases. For example, if a number of traits were present in a speech sample or writing sample, it would increase the probability that the sample had been produced by an aspie or someone on the autism spectrum. This is the same thing forensic linguists do with region, gender, political leanings, etc. As far as I know, there is not a great deal of literature on the subject.

Secondly, I’m under the impression that many people with social difficulties might be interested in learning how to improve their social interactions, AS or not. There are some language variations that might be very difficult to control (such as stuttering), but others could be learned, like the modifier displacement. It’s subtle things like that that could make everyday social interactions flow a lot more smoothly, just like learning about body language or pragmatics (i.e., when it’s appropriate to talk about certain subjects).

2. Are you saying Aspies/Auties should change?

NO, LabPet, I never said anyone SHOULD modify their tendencies, and frankly I’m offended at the implication (and also the fact that you call me NT, like I’m some kind of bug). I’d like to make this information available to people who are struggling. Like it or not, people do judge you based on the way you speak. I didn’t make the world the way it is. If someone were struggling to make friends or having professional difficulties, learning about ways to modify their behavior in order to increase positive response might be very valuable to them. It’s the same way many businesspeople attend seminars about how to be more persuasive. It’s just a tool people could use to get what they want.

3. This is not a real scientific study.

Yes, I know. This was me bored on a Friday night doing a pretty basic linguistic analysis. I’m interesting in *developing* it into a scientific study, however, and I was looking for subjective feedback. I’m aware I have a sample size of one. I’m aware I don’t have a formal hypothesis. In the social sciences, there is a lot of value placed on case studies, which may have small sample sizes and which lack hypotheses. It’s not the same as the natural/physical sciences. Regardless, this was just informal and fun for me, so step off a bit OK?

4. I’m offended.

My intention was NEVER to offend anyone and I’m really upset that I did. I think you may have misinterpreted the intent of my post, and I’m sorry for that, I should have been more careful about it. My intent was not to say, “Haha, you’re different, look at you.” *Everybody* has linguistic abnormalities for their region/culture/age group etc. What I find interesting is to pinpoint the causes of these anomalies. Like I said before, like it or not, people DO judge you by the way you speak. As a linguist, I don’t. I’m completely objective as to what is “right” and “wrong”. But trust me, the things I’m point out, other people notice them, whether it’s conscious or unconscious. If I can find a further understanding of them, the benefits would be twofold: people could modify their speech if they wished to (like I said in point 2), and also, it would help NTs understand aspie communication a bit better and they might not be so quick to judge.

5. 2ukenkerl

Ahhh thank you; that was exactly what I was looking for!! Somebody to give me their subjective interpretation of each point. If you don’t mind, can I ask your age/gender/region? That makes it easier to separate out what’s relevant for me from what’s not. Some responses:

-Pronouncing the “t” in “often” can come from a few things: it can be regional (I know in GA a lot of people do it), it can be socioeconomic (in South Carolina, it’s generally the lower socioeconomic class that pronounces it this way – I suspect that has to do with going back all the way to the difference between ‘plantation owner’ southern and ‘poor farmer’ southern, both of which developed separately, and of which the latter is more prevalent in GA and in the lower class). It can also be hypercorrection: people see it has a “t” in it, and so they change their speech to reflect that.

-A lot of people stutter. Everybody does it once in a while, anyway. Although I’ve heard it’s more common in aspies? I don’t know for sure. Anyway, what I was mostly interested in was the force/duration with which he stuttered. Typically, when one is unsure of what they’re going to say, they lower their volume until they can get the word out. Like I said, I’ve noticed children not doing this, so I thought it might be an example of stunted linguistic development (please note that all references to “stunted”, “delayed”, etc., are in reference to the standard population. I’m not making any value judgments here!!)

-As far as changing words midstream, there is ALWAYS a reason why you do it that you may not even be aware of! I’m interested to know your interpretation: why do you think he changed midstream from “feel” to “seem”? I posited my best guess but I certainly could be wrong. Generally, though, the natural tendency is to avoid making personal statements in areas in which you feel vulnerable. ‘Feeling weird’ would certainly be one of those areas, so someone might change their stream of words to ‘seeming weird’. That way, it’s not so personal; it doesn’t display any kind of vulnerability. That’s what I guessed the intent of the midstream shift was. Note that this is all usually subconscious – you don’t consciously think about it when you do it. Everybody does it, anyway, which is why I put it under NT deviations.

-You’re right, that one part was extemporaneous, but you have to admit it was still pretty nonstandard, haha! I had a hard time with that. I think it was mostly the modifier that threw it off. But it is a sign of linguistic immaturity, to change verbs like that in the middle of a sentence. But I think it’s pretty common in adolescents.

-The stuttering and pauses – no I don’t have a problem understanding it, silly!! ! But it is pretty atypical, which is why I was interested in it. Thinking back, the main reason those pauses stood out to me was the lack of discursive markers. Generally an NT would insert a word such as “um” or “like” to indicate that they’re still talking, they’re just thinking. When you have a pause like that without a discursive marker, it sounds awkward to the NT ear.

-Haha I like your response, “Some people just do that!” That is very true. However there really IS generally a reason for it, and if it can be narrowed down to AS, it might be useful in, for example, forensic linguistics.

6. nara44

Certainly an interesting perspective! I have heard that aspie language tends to be associational rather than linear. That’s definitely something that was missing from the sample, probably because he planned the presentation beforehand. That’s something I’ll have to keep in mind!

7. Ishmael

Part of the reason I turned to you guys for interpretation was to broaden my sample size. But like I said before, this is only the tip of the iceberg for me. I would really like to do this as an independent study project next semester, with many many many more samples, and I’m just testing the water at the moment.

8. Waaaah I’m bored.

Well I told you I was going to nerd out! ^_^



Thanks all for your responses! Keep them coming please! But be nice. LabPet you hurt my feelings a little.