A closer look at the 'hint and guess' sequences in aphasic conversation

The focus of this article is to examine in more detail the collaborative nature of aphasic conversation. In particular, collaborative efforts can be seen in such situations where aphasic problems, such as word searching, emerge. These problems have traditionally been studied as a cognitive process of an aphasic individual. The aim is to demonstrate that in aphasic conversation word search is a visible activity which often initiates a collaborative problem-solving sequence, traditionally called a 'hint and guess sequence. As the special practices by which this collaboration is accomplished are relatively unknown, the 'hint and guess sequences of both fluent and non-fluent aphasic speakers have been analysed in detail. The main findings suggest that these sequences have a regular structure of four distinct phases that are quite similar irrespective of the type of aphasia.