Pragmatic Language Impairment in Autism: Application on the Character of Nadim in the Arabic Series Hala Khasa (Special Case)

Pragmatic Language Impairment (PLI) is considered one of the core symptoms of individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). The present study attempts to analyze PLI as displayed by the main character in Hala Khasa (Special Case) Egyptian series. The series was released in 2024 and tells the story of Nadim who is a young autistic lawyer. The research seeks to examine the pragmatic deficits displayed by Nadim on both the receptive and expressive language levels. Drawing upon Vicker (2009) and Vicente et al. (2024), the study proposes a compiled list for PLI features in ASD by merging similar categories under more general ones in order to avoid duplication and yield a more comprehensive model. A mixed approach is adopted in order to qualitatively account for the different deficits and calculate their frequencies. The results reveal that most of the pragmatic deficits displayed by the main character pertain to the expressive rather than the receptive language level, particularly in relation to dialogic rather than monologic discourse. This was primarily manifested in deficits in conversation skills and politeness. On the receptive level, on the other hand, most of the difficulties involved inability to interpret non-literal meaning, especially in the case of idioms and indirect speech acts. Since drama series are widely watched by people of different ages and from various backgrounds, the series may serve to raise awareness among Arab-speaking audience to ASD and the involved pragmatic language deficits which may eventually contribute to promoting inclusion in Egyptian and Arab society.