Superstructure of Discourse and Cohesion in Narratives Spoken by People with Alzheimer’s
摘要
Alzheimer’s is part of dementia, a symptom of memory loss commonly known as senility. Alzheimer’s will initially distract memory, then disrupt language skills. The disruption in language skills is mainly due to reduced memory of the language form and vocabulary. In addition, memory disorders also affect the reduction in language skills because people with Alzheimer’s lose things they have remembered and understood to the point of being unable to express their thoughts in the language form. This study analyzes the superstructure and cohesion in narratives spoken by people with Alzheimer's. The purpose of this study is to explain the narrative superstructure and cohesive device used by people with Alzheimer’s in their narratives. This research uses a qualitative method. The subjects in this study were elderlies with Alzheimer’s who live in a nursing home in East Jakarta. It was a large government-owned social institution that accommodated large numbers of patients from various backgrounds. The data were collected by conducting open interviews to elderlies with Alzheimer’s in several levels of seriousness based on the results from the Mini Mental Status Exam (MMSE) test; namely, those with mild Alzheimer’s and serious Alzheimer’s. Those who match the criteria were randomly chosen, resulting in three selected respondents with Alzheimer’s as the samples. Then they were given two questions as the trigger for their stories, which are, “What was the most happily experience in your life?” and “What was the most sinister experience in your life?” It is found that narratives produced by people with mild Alzheimer’s have a complete narrative structure, which are orientation, complication, evaluation, resolution, and coda. On the other side, people with serious Alzheimer’s could not produce narratives without guidance. Narratives about unpleasant experiences are more remembered than narratives about pleasant experiences. In addition, the cohesion that is commonly used by people with Alzheimer’s are references, substitutions, and conjunctions. The research result shows the aspects of language that can be maintaned by people with mild Alzheimer’s. It gives an implication in how medical practioners handle the language maintenance of the people with mild Alzheimer’s. The decreased ability of mild Alzheimer’s to narrate and use cohesive device can signalize the worsening of Alzheimer’s. Furthermore, by continuously encouraging people with Alzheimer’s to tell memorable things in their lives, it would be possible to slow down the degeneration process as they are invited to recall their memories perpetually.