Pragmatics & Cognition 23:2 (2016), 324–342. doi 10.1075/pc.23.2.07sch issn 0929–0907 / e-issn 1569–9943 © John Benjamins Publishing Company Pragmatic function impairment and Alzheimer’s dementia Sara Schatz and Melvin González-Rivera Pragmatic competence includes the capacity to express illocutionary force and successfully achieve perlocutionary efects, in order to guarantee fully functional communication exchanges. Alzheimer’s Disease is characterized by a constel- lation of limitations derived from progressive cognitive impairment, which is usually viewed as a global uniform phenomenon. In this paper it is argued that looking independently at the loss and recovery of pragmatic function related to illocutionary and perlocutionary abilities can be a productive way of under- standing the progressive deterioration of communicative capacities by patients or their improvement under targeted treatment. Keywords: Alzheimer’s Disease, pragmatic functions, performative utterances, illocutionary and perlocutionary acts, cognitive impairment 1. Introduction Many of the key developments in pragmatic theory during the last century were frmly grounded in philosophical and linguistic pursuits. Te study of linguistic ut- terances and their association with the speaker and addressee’s intentions, plans and beliefs has made signifcant contributions to contemporary philosophy of language and linguistic pragmatics. Cognitive and social concerns have been recently brought into center stage of the feld with the proposal of addressing the underlying psycho- logical and social motivations explaining linguistic behavior and the consequences of such behavior in these domains. Te development of experimental pragmatics has also increased the connection with empirical research and scientifc methodolo- gies. Tis feld’s expansion is leading to a reconceptualization of the basic concepts and hypotheses of pragmatic theory. For example, Mey (2001) advocates for the need to incorporate external and contextual components that seem to determine the nature and interpretation of linguistic utterances into basic pragmatic units.