Discourse and Context: A Sociocognitive Approach

Cover......Page 1
Half-title......Page 3
Title......Page 5
Copyright......Page 6
Contents......Page 7
Preface......Page 9
Acknowledgements......Page 15
1 Towards a theory of context......Page 17
What is "context"?......Page 20
Literature, semiotics and the arts......Page 21
Linguistics......Page 22
Critical Discourse Analysis......Page 23
Sociology......Page 24
Psychology......Page 25
Computer science and Artificial Intelligence......Page 26
"Context" in other disciplines......Page 27
The everyday uses of "context"......Page 29
Towards a new, multidisciplinary theory of context......Page 31
"Text" versus "context"......Page 40
"Iraq" or the discourses of war and peace......Page 42
The organization of this book......Page 43
Introduction......Page 44
Systemic Functional Linguistics......Page 45
The history of the SFL approach to "context"......Page 46
Malinowski......Page 47
Firth......Page 48
Context of culture......Page 51
Halliday......Page 52
Context of situation in SFL......Page 53
Register......Page 56
Functions of language......Page 57
Other SF approaches......Page 59
Helen Leckie-Tarry......Page 63
"Context" in an introduction to SFL......Page 65
Gregory......Page 66
Wegener......Page 68
Summary of critique of SF approach to "context"......Page 70
Introduction......Page 72
Mental models......Page 73
Mental models and discourse coherence......Page 74
Mental models are unique, personal and subjective.........Page 75
... but with objective constraints......Page 76
Experiences as mental models......Page 77
Mental models and general, social knowledge......Page 79
Model schemas......Page 81
Modeling everyday life......Page 82
Everyday situations, experiences and routines......Page 84
Self......Page 85
Contexts as mental models......Page 87
Global and local contexts......Page 90
Self as the central category of context models......Page 92
Size constraints of context models......Page 93
Relevance......Page 94
Goals and intentions......Page 96
Contextual knowledge management......Page 99
Personal knowledge......Page 100
Specific social knowledge......Page 102
General sociocultural knowledge......Page 103
Special cases......Page 105
Knowledge and contextualism in philosophy......Page 106
Knowledge and Common Ground......Page 108
Common Ground and context models......Page 110
Other minds......Page 111
Other cognitive categories?......Page 113
The acquisition of context model categories......Page 114
Processing assumptions for context models......Page 115
Formation of context models......Page 116
Context controlled discourse processing......Page 117
Byline (if any)......Page 121
Lead (if any)......Page 122
Methods of studying context models......Page 123
Formal modeling of context......Page 125
Concluding remark......Page 126
Introduction......Page 127
Beyond isolated social "variables"......Page 129
Terminology: "discourse" versus "context" versus "social situation"......Page 132
Influence: the sociocognitive interface......Page 134
Example: Blair's speech in the House of Commons......Page 136
Consciousness, awareness and control of context influence......Page 139
Contextual variability versus social similarity......Page 142
Control......Page 143
Functionality......Page 144
Other relations between context and discourse......Page 146
The complexity of contextual control......Page 149
Variation......Page 150
What discourse structures may vary under identity?......Page 151
Types of variation......Page 152
Semantic variation under model-theoretic identity......Page 155
Pragmatic variation?......Page 156
Interactional variation?......Page 157
Style......Page 158
Style as choice......Page 159
Social style......Page 160
Style as context marker......Page 161
The functions of style......Page 162
Style, accommodation and impression management......Page 163
Genre......Page 164
Register......Page 167
Context control in discourse......Page 170
Gender and discourse......Page 171
Race and class......Page 174
 Sounds......Page 175
Contextualization cues......Page 177
Visuals......Page 178
Syntax......Page 181
Lexicon......Page 187
Discourse markers......Page 193
Meaning......Page 194
Metaphor......Page 195
Agency......Page 196
Modality......Page 197
Levels and completeness of description: granularity......Page 198
Disclaimers......Page 199
Presupposition and entailment......Page 200
Coherence......Page 201
Topics......Page 203
Concluding remarks on semantic variation......Page 206
Rhetoric......Page 207
Argumentation......Page 210
Narrative......Page 212
Speech acts......Page 218
Talk-in-interaction......Page 220
Turns and turn-taking......Page 221
Openings, closings and sequencing......Page 223
Other context influences on talk-in-interaction......Page 227
Refusals......Page 228
Humor......Page 229
Politeness......Page 230
Conclusion......Page 231
5 Conclusions......Page 233
Context and cognition......Page 234
Context, language use and discourse......Page 237
References......Page 242
Subject index......Page 271
Author index......Page 277