Reference:
Review Excerpts 'While the field is not yet at a stage where it is possible to lay out a precise
unifying theory, this paper attempts to provide a beginning framework for studying
discourse.... Its four sections attempt to: Domains: Under construction |
Key Terms: | communication |
discourse |
framework |
language |
notion |
range |
structure |
term |
theory |
'This paper approaches the problem of studying discourse as one of
understanding the cognitive structures and processes of language users. There
are alternative approaches, such as text-based studies ... This paper ... proposes
instead to focus on the cognitive processes of language production and
comprehension. From this point of view, the text is a concrete trace of the
processes, and its structure needs to be understood in terms of the processing
structure ... There are clear advantages to having a framework which emphasizes
the psychological processes, rather than the traces they leave, since any
psycholinguistic model must deal first and foremost with the cognitive
processing' (64).
Domains: Under construction |
Key Terms: | comprehension |
concrete |
discourse |
focus |
framework |
language |
problem |
structure |
text |
understanding |
After considering the polar distinctions of inter-sentential versus
intra-sentential, context-dependent versus context-independent, dialog versus
text, and spoken versus written and dismissing them as useful because of
overlap of features and considerations, Winograd asserts that 'having eliminated
these simple distinctions as candidates for defining "discourse", we are left
without a clear criterion for our area of study. As the rest of this paper will
illustrate, there is a good deal of diversity, and a clear definition will be possible
only after a larger body of theory and techniques has been developed'
(66).
Domains: Under construction |
Key Terms: | definition | discourse |
study |
text |
theory |
It is obvious that Winograd assumes the basic conduit model of
communication when he says that there is a 'need to transmit meaning through a
sequential medium'. Apparently the arrangement is not a particularly happy one
for 'the message is forced into a linearized channel in order to be conveyed by
speaking' (66).
Domains: Under construction |
Key Terms: | arrangement |
communication |
meaning |
medium |
'The first step in building models of any cognitive process is the choice of a
formalism' (72).
Domains: Under construction |
Key Terms: | 'A schema is a description of a complex object, situation, process, or
structure. It is a collection of knowledge related to the concept, not a definition in
the formal sense' (72).
Domains: Under construction |
Key Terms: | concept | definition |
description |
knowledge |
schema |
situation |
structure |
'We can look at schemas as providing a guide for structuring the processes
of production and comprehension. In the process of production, a schema ... lists
the different parts and properties of a structure which must be decided upon in
order to produce it.... In comprehension, the set of stored schemas is actively
used in a process of "pattern recognition"' (74).
Domains: Under construction |
Key Terms: | comprehension |
pattern |
recognition |
schema |
structure |
'Psychological experiments ... have demonstrated the ways in which the
application of a larger-scale or pragmatically based schema can have strong
effects on the way people remember texts' (75).
Domains: Under construction |
Key Terms: | schema |
Winograd speaks of 'the schemas that form part of the cognitive structure of
speaker and hearer' saying that 'the schemas can be grouped into three major
areas: Domains: Under construction |
Key Terms: | communication |
discourse |
form |
hearer |
language |
situation |
speaker |
standard |
structure |
'Each speaker of a language possesses a large and rather diverse set of
schemas dealing with the process of natural language communication'
(76).
Domains: Under construction |
Key Terms: | communication |
language |
speaker |
'The concepts presented in the sections above have been developed by
researchers working at three different sorts of tasks: data exploration (primarily
by linguists); model building (primarily in artificial intelligence); and model
verification (primarily by psychologists).... Current research tends to lie in clusters
along these separate lines. There is little work which combines the linguist's
sophistication in recognizing the complexity of the data with the computer system
builder's concern with the properties of the system as a whole, and the
psychologist's demand that the resulting analysis be verifiable through
experiments. If we are ever to really understand natural discourse, we have to
develop methodologies which span these approaches, providing both scope and
rigor in their theories' (84-6).
Domains: Under construction |
Key Terms: | analysis | data |
discourse |
intelligence |
research |
rigor |
scope |
system |
verification |
Last Modified:
July-12-96 15:46:6
Reply to randy_radney@sil.org
1. Delimit the range of problems
covered by the term "discourse".
2. Characterize the basic structure of
natural language based on a notion of communication.
3. Propose a
general approach to formalisms for describing the phenomena and building
theories about them.
4. Lay out an outline of the different schemas involved
in generating and comprehending language' (63).
1. the objects, events, and abstractions being discussed
2.
the communication situation
3. the standard patterns of discourse in the
language' (75).
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