psychiatry Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of mental disorders. These include various maladaptations related to mood, behaviour, cognition, and perceptions. See glossary of psychiatry. Initial psych ...

, stilted speech or pedantic speech is communication characterized by situationally-inappropriate formality. This formality can be expressed both through abnormal prosody as well as speech content that is "inappropriately pompous, legalistic, philosophical, or quaint". Often, such speech can act as evidence for

autism spectrum disorder The autism spectrum, often referred to as just autism or in the context of a professional diagnosis autism spectrum disorder (ASD) or autism spectrum condition (ASC), is a neurodevelopmental disorder, neurodevelopmental condition (or conditions) ...

(ASD) or a thought disorder, a common symptom in

schizophrenia Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by continuous or relapsing episodes of psychosis. Major symptoms include hallucinations (typically hearing voices), delusions, and disorganized thinking. Other symptoms include social withdra ...

schizoid personality disorder Schizoid personality disorder (, often abbreviated as SzPD or ScPD) is a personality disorder characterized by a Asociality, lack of interest in social relationships, a tendency toward a solitary or sheltered lifestyle, secretiveness, emotion ...

. To diagnose stilted speech, researchers have previously looked for the following characteristics: * speech conveying more information than necessary * vocabulary and grammar expected from formal writing rather than conversational speech * unneeded repetition or corrections While literal and long-winded word content is often the most identifiable feature of stilted speech, such speech often displays irregular prosody, especially in resonance. Often, the loudness, pitch, rate, and nasality of pedantic speech vary from normal speech, resulting in the perception of pedantic or stilted speaking. For example, overly loud or high-pitched speech can come across to listeners as overly forceful while slow or nasal speech creates an impression of condescension. These attributions, which are commonly found in patients with ASD, partially account for why stilted speech has been considered a diagnostic criterion for the disorder. Stilted speech, along with atypical intonation, semantic drift, terseness, and perseveration, are all known deficits with adolescents on the autistic spectrum. Often, stilted speech found in children with ASD will also be especially stereotypic or in some cases even rehearsed. Patients with schizophrenia are also known to experience stilted speech. This symptom is attributed to both an inability to access more commonly used words and a difficulty understanding

pragmatics In linguistics and related fields, pragmatics is the study of how context contributes to meaning. The field of study evaluates how human language is utilized in social interactions, as well as the relationship between the interpreter and the int ...

—the relationship between language and context. However, stilted speech appears as a less common symptom compared to a certain number of other symptoms of the psychosis (Adler ''et al'' 1999). This element of cognitive disorder is also exhibited as a symptom in the

narcissistic personality disorder Narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) is a personality disorder characterized by a life-long pattern of exaggerated feelings of self-importance, an excessive need for admiration, a diminished ability or unwillingness to empathize with other ...

(Akhtar & Thomson 1982).S. Akhtar and J. Anderson Thomson, "Overview: Narcissistic personality Disorder
''American Journal of Psychiatry'' 139:1
Retrieved 2012-01-12

References

{{Reflist Symptoms and signs of mental disorders Communication disorders Autism

See also

References