Abstract
This paper investigates caregivers’ use of directives to repair embodied engagements of individuals diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia. High entitlement/low contingency (HE/LC) formats (e.g., imperatives) are consistently employed to elicit an alternative engagement in a current course of action that is treated as required for the accomplishment of an ongoing activity. In selecting directive formats, caregivers appear to orient to whether the alternative engagement is essential for the completion of an activity, how urgent or time-sensitive it is for the activity’s progressivity, and whether the current engagement is of a compulsive-type. Less essential, less urgent engagements elicit slightly mitigated formats, and compulsive-type engagements are repaired with multiple directives. The affordance of HE/LC directives in activity-focused contexts is that they explicitly identify the trouble source and often articulate the next action required for the activity’s progression. Additionally HE/LC formats expect compliance, which may minimally derail the progressivity of an activity compared to more mitigated forms. HE/LC formats in activity repair contexts reveal caregivers’ claimed rights to determine another’s actions as well as sensitivity to the activity requirements and progression. Data are in American English.