Ecolalia e gestos no autismo: reflexões em torno da metáfora enunciativa

Our objective was to study language in autism, within the enunciative linguistic field and the multimodal perspective of language, and we identified echolalia as belonging to the field of metaphor, on the basis of its relation to gestures and the enunciative context. The study was based on Benveniste’s enunciative theory and the multimodal language matrix proposed by McNeill to discuss the possibility that echolalia might coexist as a metaphor in the language of autistic children. We used a qualitative, case study methodology in which we selected fragments of echolalia drawn from the database of the Group for the Study of and Attention to the Autism Spectrum Disorder. The fragments were transcribed using the Elan (Eudico Language Annotator) software. Results show the multimodal functioning of echolalia perceived as a metaphor due to an analogical transfer of nomination produced in discourse, on the basis of stereotyped gestures associated with it.