Stilted speech

In psychiatry, stilted speech or pedantic speech^[1] is communication characterized by situationally inappropriate formality.^[2] This formality can be expressed both through abnormal prosody^[3] as well as speech content that is "inappropriately pompous, legalistic, philosophical, or quaint".^[4] Often, such speech can act as evidence for autism spectrum disorder (ASD)^[3] or a thought disorder,^[5] a common symptom in schizophrenia^[6] or schizoid personality disorder.^[7]

To diagnose stilted speech, researchers have previously looked for the following characteristics:^[8]

• 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.^[8] 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.^[9]

These attributions, which are commonly found in patients with ASD,^[9] partially account for why stilted speech has been considered a diagnostic criterion for the disorder.^[8] Stilted speech, along with atypical intonation, semantic drift, terseness, and perseveration, are all known deficits with adolescents on the autistic spectrum.^[10] Often, stilted speech found in children with ASD will also be especially stereotypic or in some cases even rehearsed.^[10]

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—the relationship between language and context.^[11] However, stilted speech appears as a less common symptom compared to a certain number of other symptoms of the psychosis (Adler et al 1999).^[12] This element of cognitive disorder is also exhibited as a symptom in the narcissistic personality disorder (Akhtar & Thomson 1982).^[13]

See also

• Communication deviance
• Literary language
• Otaku § Etymology
• Register (sociolinguistics)