HABILIDAD ARGUMENTATIVA EN HISPANOHABLANTES CON AFASIA PROGRESIVA PRIMARIA: UNA COMPARACIÓN TRANSCULTURAL SEGÚN EL NIVEL DE ESCOLARIZACIÓN Y EL REPERTORIO LINGÜÍSTICO

Primary Progressive Aphasia (PPA) is a neurological syndrome related to several neurodegenerative diseases and characterised by a progressive loss of speech. Within the discourse studies on APP, there is a lack of focus on one of the most complex discursive skills, i.e. argumentative skills. For this reason, the aim of of this thesis is to detect and quantitatively analyse the argumentative ability of a group of patients with PPA compared to a control group, according to two parameters of comparison: the level of schooling and their background linguistic knowledge. During a research stay at the San Carlos Clinical Hospital in Madrid, 30 PPA patients and their controls were given an argumentative test, created ad-hoc. The test, which was audio-visually recorded to capture gestures and proxemics, is structured in three parts, each corresponding to a different argumentative stimulus (textual, graphic, conversational). By means of a text, images and a debate, it was possible to collect data from three different perspectives of argumentative production or comprehension. After the test, two questionnaires were administered in order to collect information on levels of schooling (My linguistic biography) and the languages spoken before (Levels of language proficiency). After having transcribed the tests with the audio transcription software WhisperAI and merging the transcripts into a corpus of PPA argumentative discourse, it was possible to insert the answers to the textual analysis questions and the interpretations of the images into a matrix of SPSS programme, in order to make a statistical analysis of the data. At the same time, it was possible to create a PPA argumentative profile model by classifying the arguments used by patients (according to the Wagemans’ classification, 2020) and calculating the frequency of use of the argumentative markers. By means of the Chi-square test in SPSS, it was possible to see the percentage of success of the PPA patients in the textual analysis and in the interpretation of the images, with respect to the controls and, consequently, the survival or not of certain persuasive skills. The influence of schooling level and linguistic background was calculated through a comparison of means and, in the case of schooling, also through Spearman's correlation index. The main finding of the study is that patients with APP show impaired argumentative ability and no significant correlations are observed with school level or linguistic reserve. The finding that a subgroup of APP patients show preserved argumentative ability opens the door for future studies to better understand the reasons underlying such preservation in APP. In addition, there are qualitative differences in argumentative procedures that could be addressed in future research.