Speakers, Listeners and Communication Explorations in Discourse Analysis [Paperback]

This cognitive/pragmatic analysis of discourse examines the collaborative use of language.Gillian Brown draws on a wide range of examples of discourse analysis to explore the ways in which speakers and listeners use language collaboratively to talk about what they can see in front of them and about a series of events. The focus of her attention is upon the listener's role, as the listener tries to make sense of what the speaker says in a highly constrained context; and her cognitive/pragmatic approach to discourse analysis both complements and challenges current sociological/anthropological perspectives on the subject.Gillian Brown draws on a wide range of examples of discourse analysis to explore the ways in which speakers and listeners use language collaboratively to talk about what they can see in front of them and about a series of events. The focus of her attention is upon the listener's role, as the listener tries to make sense of what the speaker says in a highly constrained context; and her cognitive/pragmatic approach to discourse analysis both complements and challenges current sociological/anthropological perspectives on the subject.Gillian Brown draws on a wide range of examples of discourse analysis to explore the ways in which speakers and listeners use language collaboratively to talk about what they can see in front of them and about a series of events. The focus of her attention is on the listener's role, as the listener tries to make sense of what the speaker says in a highly constrained context; and her cognitive/pragmatic approach to discourse analysis both complements and challenges current sociological/anthropological perspectives on the subject.1. Speakers, listeners, and communication; 2. The map task method; 3. Identifying features in a landscape; 4. Guiding the listener through the landscape; 5. The stolen letter task: understanding reference to individuals in a narrative; 6. Understanding narratives; 7. The listener and discourse comprehenlóÌ