Context Construction as Mediated by Discourse Markers

An Adaptive Approach
Approx XIV, 195 Pp., Index. Auflage 2016
ISBN: 978-90-04-27382-5
Verlag: Brill

Buch, Englisch, Band 15, 198 Seiten, Format (B × H): 155 mm x 239 mm, Gewicht: 431 g

Reihe: Studies in Pragmatics

From a Darwinian perspective, language is rooted in our neurobiology, and the process whereby interpretation is reached – in the case of argumentative sequences – is not dissimilar to that underlying action selection in response to environmental change: indeed, it arguably involves the same type of decision-making (Damasio 1994). Context construction, as construed by Nyan, corresponds to the preliminary stage of decision-making, when the changed environment needs to be categorised. What discourse markers contribute to context construction is an upgraded level of automation, whereby the degree of variation assumed to be present in the interlocutor’s processing context can be brought within a manageable range. How discourse markers influence interpretation is construed in terms of Damasio’s (2010) convergence-and-divergence zone framework.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Nyan, Thanh

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Sprachwissenschaft Semantik & Pragmatik
• Geisteswissenschaften Sprachwissenschaft Textlinguistik, Diskursanalyse, Stilistik

Über Autor(innen)

Thanh Nyan, PhD. (1988), University of Paris-Sorbonne, is Senior Lecturer in French and Linguistics at the University of Manchester (UK). Her publications include monographs and articles on discourse markers, context construction, and the structure of utterance meaning from an adaptive perspective.