inter-stratal tension

Society and Discourse

Dec 12

ChRIS CLÉiRIGhannouncements No Comments

Title: Society and Discourse
Subtitle: How Social Contexts Influence Text and Talk
Publication Year: 2012
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
http://us.cambridge.org

Book URL: http://www.cambridge.org/us/knowledge/isbn/item6893168/Society%20and%20Discourse/?site_locale=en_US

Author: Teun A. van Dijk

Paperback: ISBN: 9781107407107 Pages: 298 Price: U.S. $ 46.00

Abstract:

Please note: This is a new paperback edition of a previously announced book.

After his earlier book Discourse and Context, also published by Cambridge
University Press, Teun A. van Dijk in this 2009 study presents the second part
of his new multidisciplinary theory of context. The main thesis of this theory
is that the influence of society on discourse is not direct, as is postulated
for instance in sociolinguistics, but cognitively mediated by subjective
mental models of the communicative situation: context models. These dynamic
models control discourse production and comprehension and define the pragmatic
appropriateness of text and talk. Whereas in Discourse and Context the
psychological and linguistic aspects of context were analyzed, this book
focuses on the social psychological, sociological, anthropological and
political aspects of context. Tony Blair’s 2003 speech defending his motion to
go to war against Saddam Hussein and the following debate in parliament is
used as an example illustrating the new theory.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. Context and social cognition
3. Context and society
4. Context and culture
5. Context and politics: the Iraq debate in British parliament
6. Conclusions