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Context Construction As Mediated by Discourse Markers: An Adaptive Approach

By Thanh Nyan

Book information

Publisher
BRILL
Year
2016
ISBN
9004273824, 9789004273825
Language
english
Format
PDF
Filesize
2 MB (1704755 bytes)
Series
Studies in Pragmatics
Pages
209\213
Scanned
yes
Time added
2016-12-15 14:56:24
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Description

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."

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