Descriptive and Interpretive Representations of Relevance in the Conversation of Selected Autistic Patients and their Caregivers in Ibadan Metropolis, Oyo State

Abstract This study investigates the linguistic manifestations of relevance in dyadic conversations between individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and their caregivers. Previous studies have indicated that conversational patterns and expressions of relevance can differ substantially for autistic speakers compared to neurotypical individuals. However, the aspect of language use and social relations in African contexts needs more scholarly attention. Grounded in Relevance Theory, this paper analyses naturalistic discourse data to elucidate descriptive and interpretive relevance in autistic communication. The data were collected from autism support centres in Ibadan, Nigeria, comprising transcribed conversations between eight autistic individuals and their caregivers. Using pragmatic discourse analysis, the study examines both linguistic features and underlying cognitive-pragmatic processes that shape relevance attribution in these interactions. The analysis reveals distinctive patterns of descriptive and interpretive relevance in the data. Descriptive relevance markers include frequent echolalia, pronoun reversals, code-mixing, silence fillers, and reduced syntactic complexity in ASD patients' speech. Interpretive relevance encompasses contextual comprehension, idiosyncratic topic associations, and atypical pragmatic inferences. These findings reveal a complex interplay between form and function in autistic discourse, where unconventional linguistic and cognitive mechanisms negotiate relevance. This study contributes to autism research by providing detailed analysis of relevance markers in Nigerian autistic communication, demonstrating how multilingual contexts shape both descriptive and interpretive relevance strategies while challenging deficit-based narratives of autistic discourse. Keywords: Autism Spectrum Disorder, Relevance Theory, pragmatics, caregiver communication, Applied linguistics.