The Meaning of Context for people with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)

Seminar paper from the year 2020 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, grade: 1,7, University of Heidelberg, language: English, abstract: This paper examines the meaning of context for people with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) by utilizing and transferring the meaning of context in Grice¿s cooperative principle and Sperber and Wilsons Relevance Theory. To get into the topic, the common understanding of the term ¿context¿, the variety in which this term can be used and its typical function in linguistics will be observed in the first chapter. The main part of this paper will be concerned with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

In order to investigate the meaning of context for affected people, the diagnostic symptoms and associated communication disorders have to be analyzed at first. Afterwards, these impairments will be applied to Grice¿s cooperative principle and Sperber and Wilsons Relevance theory, which both provide a framework for getting to the bottom of the meaning of context for people with ASD. Afterwards, empirical data, in the form of interview transcripts, will be used to substantiate the previous discoveries. A summary of all findings and their connections will be provided in the conclusion.