Evaluation of comprehension in aphasia: the limit of assessment tests and the contribution of discursive analysis

Abstract

This paper discusses critically the concept of comprehension which underlies the traditional literature in Neurolinguistics and reflects about its evaluation in aphasia. Differently from language production, which can be analyzed in its materiality, comprehension may be approached only indirectly. Several assessment tests have been developed in order to approach it in order to understand what might be going on during the reception of language. Structural theories postulate idealized models which conceive it in opposition to production, where there is a transmitter who encodes the message and a receiver who decodes it. Through the analysis of some data which emerged in experimental situations, we argue about the limits of abstract models which prevail in literature, confronting them with the Bakhtinian concept of responsive comprehension, which is coherent with the Discursive Neurolinguistics we develop.