Interpretation and understanding / Marcelo Dascal.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Dascal, Marcelo.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Pragmatics.

Communication.

Comprehension.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (736 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Amsterdam ; Philadelphia : John Benjamins Pub., c2003.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Our species has been hunting for meaning ever since we departed from our cousins in the evolutionary tree. We developed sophisticated forms of communication. Yet, as much as they can convey meaning and foster understanding, they can also hide meaning and prevent comprehension. Indeed, we can never be sure that a "yes" conveys assent or that a smile reveals pleasure. In order to ascertain what communicative behavior "means", we have to go through an elaborate cognitive process of interpretation.This book deals with how we achieve the daily miracle of understanding each other. Based on the author 's contributions to pragmatics, the book articulates his perspective using the insights of linguistics, the philosophy of language and rhetoric, and confronting alternatives to it. Theory formation is shaped by application to fields of human activity - such as legal practice, artificial intelligence, psychoanalysis, the media, literature, aesthetics, ethics and politics - where interpretation and understanding are paramount. Using an accessible language, this is a book addressed to specialists as well as to anyone interested in interpreting understanding and understanding the potentialities and limits of interpretation.

Contents:

Interpretation and Understanding

Title page

LCC page

Contents

Foreword

Part I: Theorizing

Chapter 1 Pragmatics and communicative intentions

Notes

Chapter 2 Conversational relevance

Chapter 3 Strategies of understanding

Chapter 4 Two modes of understanding

Chapter 5 Individual and collective intentions

Chapter 6 How does a connective work? Between semantics and pragmatics: The two types of 'but' - 'aval' and 'ela'

Chapter 7 Commitment and involvement

Chapter 8 Cues, clues, and context

Chapter 9 Models of interpretation

Part II: Applying

Chapter 10 Understanding digressions A study in conversational coherence

Chapter 11 Understanding a metaphor: The beyond enterprise

Chapter 12 Three remarks on pragmatics and literature

Chapter 13 Understanding controversies

Chapter 15 Understanding the law

Chapter 16 Understanding jokes and dreams: Sociopragmatics vs. psychopragmatics

Chapter 17 Understanding art

Chapter 18 Why does language matter to Artificial Intelligence?

Chapter 19 Pragmatics in the digital age

Chapter 20 Interpretation and tolerance

Chapter 21 Understanding other cultures: The ecology of cultural space

Part III: Meeting the alternatives

Chapter 22 Why should I ask her?

Chapter 23 Speech act theory and pragmatics: An uneasy couple

Chapter 24 The pragmatic structure of conversation

Chapter 25 Contextualism

Chapter 26 Does pragmatics need semantics?

Chapter 27 Pragmatics and foundationalism

Chapter 28 The marriage of pragmatics and rhetoric

Chapter 29 Hermeneutic interpretation and pragmatic interpretation

Notes.

Chapter 30 The limits of interpretation

Sources and acknowledgments

References

Subject index

Name index.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. [666]-693) and indexes.

ISBN:

9786612160714

9781282160712

1282160710

9789027295897

9027295891

OCLC:

298788287