A PSYCHOLINGUISTIC ANALYSIS OF AN AUTISTIC PERSON’S LANGUAGE IN TEMPLE GRANDIN MOVIE

摘要

This research is a psycholinguistic study of an autistic person’s language in Temple Grandin. The objectives of this research are (1) to explain the kinds of responses and (2) to explain the features of autistic person represented by the autistic character in Temple Grandin.udThis research employed descriptive qualitative method with the researcher as the main instrument and the data sheets as the secondary instrument. The object of this research was the movie entitled Temple Grandin. The data were in the form of utterances which contain and reflect the phenomenon of autistic responses and the features of an autistic person. Theudsource of data was the script of the movie. After being collected, the data were categorised and analysed based on each category. To enhance the trustworthiness of the data in this study, theory and expert method were applied.udThe results of the research show two important points. First, based on the findings of the research, there are 3 kinds of responses, namely cognitively irrelevant responses (CI), cognitively relevant responses (CR), and cognitively disruptive and socially inappropriate responses (CDI). In cognitively disruptive and socially inappropriate responses, there are odd responses (OD), relevant but not too polite responses (RNP) and marginally relevant responses (MR). Cognitively disruptive and socially inappropriate responses are the highest phenomena because Temple Grandin has problems in interacting with other people and understanding the conversational topic. When Temple Grandin talks to others, she is able to give relevant responses but she has difficulties in interacting with others. Second, there are seven out of nine features of autistic person. The seven features experienced by Temple Grandin are inability to develop relationship, non-communicative use of spoken language, delayed echolalia, pronominal reversal, repetitive and stereotype play, maintenance of sameness, and good rote memory. Inability to develop relationship ranks in the highest position because individual with autism has difficulty in making friends and in socialising.