Talking across time: Use of reported speech as a communicative resource in amnesia

Reported speech (RS) is a discourse phenomenon wherein speakers represent speech and thought from other times and places, bringing together in one utterance multiple speakers and contexts. This study examines RS use in nine participants with amnesia and nine comparison participants as they engage in an interactional discourse protocol with a clinician. We provide detailed analysis of the forms and interactional functions of RS across groups. This research contributes to the emerging portrait of discourse abilities in amnesia by exploring the diversity of resources displayed in their communicative interactions, and to our understandings of the interrelationship of language and memory