Impact of Aging on Conversational Discourse Cohesion in Tamil-Speaking Neurotypical Adults

Authors

  • Ruba Selvaraj

    Department of Audiology and Speech Language Pathology, SRM Medical College Hospital and Research Centre, SRM Institute of Science and Technology, Kattankulathur Campus, Chennai 603203, India
  • Savitha Vadakkanthara Hariharan

    Sri Ramachandra Faculty of Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology, Sri Ramachandra Institute of Higher Education and Research (Deemed to be University), Chennai 600116, India
  • Arunan Subbiah

    Department of Neurology, SRM Medical College Hospital and Research Centre, SRM Institute of Science and Technology, Kattankulathur Campus, Chennai 603203, India

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.30564/fls.v7i12.11588
Received: 11 August 2025 | Revised: 17 September 2025 | Accepted: 24 September 2025 | Published Online: 6 November 2025

Abstract

Aging affects discourse cohesion, leading to challenges such as repetition, vagueness, and word-finding difficulties. While research has focused on Western populations, there is a lack of studies on Tamil-speaking elderly, emphasizing the need for exploration in this demographic. The study aimed to investigate age-related differences in conversational discourse cohesion among neurotypical Tamil-speaking individuals. This study included 80 Tamil-speaking participants, comprising 40 middle-aged adults (aged 44–59) and 40 older adults (aged 60–80), with an equal number of males and females. Participants engaged in conversational discourse tasks that were video recorded. Discourse cohesion was analysed using the Complementary Procedure for Conversational Discourse Analysis (CPCDA) tool. Results showed that older adults had significant impairments in discourse cohesion (p ≤ 0.05), including pronoun use, vague expressions, repeated information, and word-finding difficulties, compared to middle-aged adults, with no significant differences in other cohesion domains. Results suggests that age plays a more significant role in discourse cohesion impairments in later adulthood. Assessing discourse cohesion in aging individuals is crucial for the early detection of linguistic decline. These findings support the integration of discourse analysis into routine clinical evaluations by speech-language pathologists, enabling timely and targeted interventions that help preserve communicative effectiveness and improve the communication quality of life in aging populations.

Keywords:

Conversational Discourse; Discourse Cohesion; Aging; Discourse Analysis; Linguistic Decline

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How to Cite

Selvaraj, R., Vadakkanthara Hariharan, S., & Subbiah, A. (2025). Impact of Aging on Conversational Discourse Cohesion in Tamil-Speaking Neurotypical Adults. Forum for Linguistic Studies, 7(12), 471–483. https://doi.org/10.30564/fls.v7i12.11588

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Vol. 7 , Iss. 12 (December 2025): In progress

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Copyright © 2025 Ruba Selvaraj, Savitha Vadakkanthara Hariharan, Arunan Subbiah

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This is an open access article under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) License.