title: Psychometric aspects of verbal pragmatic ratings.
abstract: This study examined the psychometric aspects of a verbal pragmatic rating scale. The scale contained six pragmatic features (i.e., Conciseness, Lexical Selection, Quantity, Relevancy, Specificity, and Topic Maintenance) based on Grice's cooperative principles. Fifteen right brain-damaged (RBD), 15 left brain-damaged (LBD), and 16 healthy normal control (NC) right-handed adult participants produced narratives while recollecting emotional and nonemotional experiences. Naive raters evaluated each pragmatic feature for appropriateness on a 5-point Likert scale. When reliability was examined, the overall internal consistency of the pragmatic scale was extremely high (alpha =.96). Factor analysis was conducted to examine the theoretical relations among the six pragmatic features. Three meaningful factors involving discourse content, conceptual unity, and parsimony were identified. Findings are discussed in light of Grice's model and the construct validity of the scale.
authors.affiliation: Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences, Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY 11549, USA. SPHRLB@hofstra.edu
authors.forename: R L
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Bloom
authors.forename: L H
authors.initials: LH
authors.lastname: Pick
authors.forename: J C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Borod
authors.forename: K D
authors.initials: KD
authors.lastname: Rorie
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Andelman
authors.forename: L K
authors.initials: LK
authors.lastname: Obler
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sliwinski
authors.forename: A L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Campbell
authors.forename: J R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Tweedy
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Welkowitz
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D001927:Brain Diseases / Q000150:complications*; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D007806:Language Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology*; D008037:Linguistics; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011594:Psychometrics; D012720:Severity of Illness Index