Narrative Comprehension: A Discourse Perspective (Oxford Linguistics) - Couverture souple

Emmott, Catherine

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 0198238681 ISBN 13 : 9780198238683

Editeur : Oxford University Press, U.S.A., 1999

Synopsis

There has so far been relatively little research by cognitive linguists on the comprehension of narrative texts. This book draws on insights from discourse analysis and artificial intelligence to explore how readers construct and maintain mental representations of fictional characters and contexts, and goes on to consider the implications of cognitive modelling for grammatical theory and a literary-linguistic model of narrative text-types.

A propos du livre

Présentation de l'éditeur

Despite the current explosion of interest in cognitive linguistics, there has so far been relatively little research by cognitive linguists on narrative comprehension. Catherine Emmott draws on insights from discourse analysis and artificial intelligence to present a detailed model of how readers build, maintain, and use mental representations of fictional contexts, and how they keep track of characters and contexts within a complex, changing fictional world. The book begins with a summary of current issues in text-processing theory and a discussion of the methodological importance of recognizing the hierarchical structure of discourse. The core of the book explores the significance of contextual monitoring in narrative comprehension and looks particularly at the cognitive demands placed on readers by flashbacks. Later chapters examine the implications of contextual monitoring for reference theory and for a literary-linguistic model of narrative text types. The study focuses on anaphoric pronouns in narratives, assessing the accumulated knowledge required for readers to interpret these key grammatical items. The work has implications for linguistic theory since it questions several long-held assumptions about anaphora, arguing for a `levels of consciousness' model for the processing of referring expressions.

Revue de presse

a major advance in narrative analysis the book will be an invaluable resource for discourse analysts, cognitive scientists, and narrative theorists alike. (David Herman, North Carolina State University, USA, Language)

This is a book which a lot of people should read. It has relevant things to say to linguists and psychologists interested in text and discourse analysis, narratologists, stylisticians, literary theorists, reading theorists and those interested in the empirical study of literature and in the teaching of literacy skills. (Professor Mick Short, Lancaster University, Journal of Literary Semantics)

any future serious treatments of written narrative, and particularly of anaphora, will have to take this work into account. (Professor Wallace Chafe, University of California, Santa Barbara, USA)

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Oxford University Press, U.S.A.
• Date d'édition: 1999
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 0198238681
• ISBN 13: 9780198238683
• Reliure: Broché
• Nombre de pages: 344
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: Ufficio Anagrafiche Messaggerie; ufficio.anagrafiche@meli.it; ; Via Verdi, 8; Assago Milano; 20090; Italie