Study examines Sir Terry Pratchett’s novels to look at language changes associated with dementia
A study published in Brain Sciences has assessed Sir Terry Pratchett’s 33 Discworld novels to determine how his use of language changed over time.
Researchers from Loughborough University examined the ‘lexical density’ of nouns and adjectives in the books to see how they changed. The researchers concluded that the 22nd book in the Discworld series, ‘The Last Continent’ (1998), shows a marked decline in the complexity of language compared to Sir Terry’s previous novels. ‘The Last Continent’ was published almost a decade before Sir Terry was formally diagnosed with Posterior Cortical Atrophy (PCA). He died in 2015 aged 66.
Dr Thom Wilcockson, Senior Lecturer in Psychology at Loughborough University School of Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences, led the study and says:
“Identifying dementia in the early stages is important as it may enable us to use interventions sooner before the brain is damaged beyond repair. Research indicates that memory problems may not be the first symptom of dementia. We wanted to explore whether language could be an early warning sign, and to do this, we used Sir Terry Pratchett’s books.
Our analysis found that Sir Terry’s use of language did indeed change during his career. These results suggest that language may be one of the first signs of dementia, and Sir Terry’s books reveal a potential new approach for early diagnosis.”
You can read the study here: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3425/16/1/94