The use of metaphors by people living with dementia

between the problem of comprehension and the possibility of signification

Abstract

The discourse of individuals with dementia often escapes conventional forms of language. In this context, metaphorical language is frequently interpreted as a language error from a prescriptive grammatical perspective. However, from a neurolinguistic standpoint, language alterations are understood through the identification and description of linguistic phenomena considered deviant in relation to the norm. Here, the use of metaphors in the speech of individuals with dementia is observed as linguistic data: it is not, in itself, an indicator of cognitive impairment, but is inscribed in the singular ways these individuals produce meaning and in their strategies for communicative reorganization. Based on four speech samples, we discuss the dilution of physical experience into seemingly unusual abstractions. The metaphors used in the discourse of people with dementia do not seem deliberately intended to create an emotional effect, but rather present traces of subjectivity. Even when carrying an element of surprise, we understand this creative use—with uncommon shifts between (sociocognitive) domains of experience—as supported by a shared conceptual system. We infer that an imaginative rationality, which remains possible in the context of dementia syndromes through bodily memory, allows biography to be maintained, to some extent, even if out of tune, like notes that resonate with dissonance.