É«»¨ÌÃ

English Language and Literature
Professor Emerita
Email: elissa.asp@smu.ca

Overview

Elissa Asp is Professor Emerita of English and Linguistics at Saint Mary's University, Halifax, and Adjunct Professor in the Department of Psychology & Neuroscience, É«»¨Ìà of Graduate Studies, Dalhousie University. Her research interests include elaborating the discourse correlates of age-associated neurodegenerative diseases,  neuroimaging studies of networks supporting language and discourse production,  and theoretical implications of these for models of language. She continues to help with thesis supervision in English, linguistics, and psychology. 

Publications

Books

• Asp, E. & Aldridge, M. (eds.) 2023. Empirical Evidences and Theroretical Assumptions in Functional Linguistics. London: Routledge.
• Asp, E. & DeVilliers, J. 2010. When Language Breaks Down: analyzing discourse in clinical contexts  Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.               

Selected/recent publications

• Asp, E. 2022. Neurolinguistic and neuropsychological evidences for functionally organized language networks. In Asp, E. & Aldridge-Walden, M. (eds.) Theory and evidences in functional1linguistics. London: Routledge, pp. 7-36. DOI
• Cahill, P. T., Cleave, P., Asp, E., Squires, B., & Kay-Raining Bird, E. (2022). Divergences betweeen complexity and performance in language sample analysis [poster]. Speech-Language and Audiology Canada 2022, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
• Cahill, P., Cleave, P., Asp, E., Squires, B., & Kay-Raining Bird, E. (2020). Measuring the complex syntax of school-aged children in language sample analysis: A known-groups validation study. É«»¨Ìà Journal of Language and Communication Disorders, 55(5), 765–776.
• Asp, E. 2019. In praise of text analysis.  Functions of Language, 21, 1: 35-4. DOI:
• Asp, E, Tremblay, A., Flick, G., Newman, A. 2019. Cforests in the trees: Using conditional inference random forests on MEG data to explore ‘what fires together’ in a picture naming task. In Stem-, Spraak- en Taalpathologie (Voice, Speech and Language Pathology) Vol. 24, Supplement,. pp. 12-14.
• Asp, E. & deVilliers, J. 2019. “Clinical Linguistics” In Thompson, G., Bowcher, W., Fontaine, L., & Schönthal. (eds.) The Cambridge Handbook of Systemic Functional Linguistics, pp. 587-619. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI:
• Tremblay, A. Flick, G., Eliot, C.… Asp, E., Newman, A. 2019. Using Free, Unscripted Conversation with Synchronized NeuroImaging Data in Linguistic Inquiry. In Tsedryk, A., Doe, C.  (eds.) The Description, Measurement, and Pedagogy of Words.  Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Press, pp. 58-79.
• Asp, E. 2017.  “What is a System? What is a Function? A Study in Contrasts and Convergences.” In Bartlett, T., O'Grady, G. (eds.), Routledge Systemic Functional Linguistic Handbook, pp. 27-41.  London: Routledge.
• Tremblay, A., Asp, E., Johnson, A.,  Bardouille, T, Newman, A.J. “What the networks tell us about serial and parallel processing: An MEG study of language networks in an overt picture description task.”  The Mental Lexicon, 2016: Vol. 11.1: 115–160. DOI:
• Asp, E. 2013. “The Twin Paradoxes of Unconscious Choices and Unintentional Agents: What Neurosciences Say About Choice and Agency in Action and Language.” In Fontaine, L., Bartlett, T., O'Grady, T.  Systemic-Functional Linguistics: Exploring Choice, pp. 161-178. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI:
• McMurtry, C. M., Chambers, C.T., McGrath, P.J., Asp, E. 2010. “When ‘Don't Worry’ Communicates Fear: Children's Perceptions of Parental Reassurance and Distraction During a Painful Medical Procedure.”  Pain, 150(1): 52 – 58. 
• Asp, E., Cloutier, F., Fay, S., Cook, C., Robertson, M-L., Fisk, J.,  Dei, D-W., Rockwood, K. 2007a. “Verbal Repetition in Patients with Alzheimer’s Disease Who Receive Donepezil.”  É«»¨Ìà Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 21(5): 426 – 431.
• Rockwood, K., Fay, S., Jarrett, P. & Asp, E. 2007. “Effect of Galantamine on Verbal Repetition in AD: A Secondary Analysis of the VISTA Trial.” Neurology, 68 (14): 1116 – 1121.
• McMurtry, M., McGrath, P., Asp, E., Chambers, C. 2007. “Parental Reassurance and Pediatric Procedural Pain: A Linguistic Description.” Journal of Pain, 8(2): 95 – 101.
• Asp, E., Song, X., Rockwood, R. 2006. “Self-referential Tags in the Discourse of People with Alzheimer’s Disease?”  Brain and Language, 97 (1): 41 – 52.