Text world theory : an introduction / Joanna Gavins.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Gavins, Joanna.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Discourse analysis.

Mental representation.

Physical Description:

x, 193 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Edinburgh : Edinburgh University Press, [2007]

Summary:

Text World Theory is a cognitive model of all human discourse processing. In this introductory textbook, Joanna Gavins sets out a usable framework for understanding mental representations. Text World Theory is explained using naturally occurring texts and real situations, including literary works, advertising discourse, the language of lonely hearts, horoscopes, route directions, cookery books and song lyrics. The book will therefore enable students, teachers and researchers to make practical use of the text-world framework in a wide range of linguistic and literary contexts.

Features: An accessible and enabling course book which includes suggestions for exploration and further reading. Draws on linguistics, cognitive science, psychology, philosophy, poetics and stylistics, and will be attractive to students and researchers working in all of these disciplines. Each chapter provides a reader-friendly introduction to an aspect of Text World Theory and includes at least two practical applications of these ideas to real discourse examples.

Contents:

1 Conceptualising Language 1

The world in the mind 3

Language in the mind 4

Some history 6

Text World Theory 8

Further investigation 15

2 Participating in Discourse 18

Key issues in this chapter 18

Interacting through language 18

Communicating in context 21

Making connections 24

Exploring context 25

Further investigation 31

3 Scenes 35

Key issues in this chapter 35

Building a text-world 35

World-building in practice 38

Shifting text-worlds 45

Further investigation 51

4 Processes 53

Key issues in this chapter 53

Advancing the text-world 53

Textual functions 59

Enactor relationships 64

Further investigation 71

5 Layers 71

Key issues in this chapter 73

Hierarchies 73

Transcending boundaries 81

Fictionality 83

Further investigation 88

6 Attitudes 91

Key issues in this chapter 91

Modality and desire 91

Obligation 96

Instruction and self-implication 103

Further investigation 107

7 Distances 109

Key issues in this chapter 109

Knowledge and belief 109

Perception 113

Hypotheticality 118

Further investigation 123

8 Narratives 126

Key issues in this chapter 126

Focalisation 126

Enactors and focalisation 131

Narrative deception 135

Further investigation 143

9 Double-vision 146

Key issues in this chapter 146

Understanding metaphor 146

Extended metaphor 149

Understanding double-vision 152

Double-vision and self-implication 156

Further investigation 162

10 Futures 165

Key issues in this chapter 165

Obscurity 165

Resistance 170

Performance 172

Text 174

Texture 175.

Notes:

Includes bibliography (pages [178]-188) and index.

ISBN:

9780748622993

0748622993

9780748623006

0748623000

OCLC:

123795714