Language mixing in bilingual speakers with Alzheimer's dementia: a conversation analysis approach

Bilingual speakers with Alzheimer's disease (AD) may use the wrong language for the setting/interlocutor or produce what appears to be an inappropriat e mixture of their two languages. The few published studies to date examini ng this phenomenon have investigated it within a discourse analysis framewo rk, interpreting the behaviour either as a problem of language choice (choo sing the appropriate language in which to converse) or language separation (keeping two languages separate in production). These authors contend that while such a distinction is theoretically feasible, it is extremely problem atic to apply these labels to actual conversational data. Using examples fr om free conversations of four bilingual women with AD, some of the difficul ties inherent in a discourse analytic approach to this question are illustr ated. Applying principles from conversation analysis (CA) it is argued that a methodology that is data driven and context relevant offers more valuabl e insights into individuals' language use and interaction. It avoids the in conclusiveness of the choice-separation dichotomy and offers more construct ive accounts of whether and how language behaviour is appropriate or not.