Abstract
Abstract Contributing to the common interest entails repairing perceived gaps in mutual knowledge. All discourse between members of a community of interest depends on their having a shared background of relevant knowledge. Gaps arise from ignorance or uncertainty relative to some common interest. In any given discourse a particular range of mutual knowledge will be relevant; its identification crucially depends on identifying current interests, since relevant background is what has made a difference to the outcome of the common interests at a given moment (the outcome of an interest may be its own changed state). Even the general background of shared vocabulary depends on membership in a language community with a history of like interests. Issues are a species of interest to which more conversation is addressed than at first appears. I illustrate this with two samples of actual discourse. Questions and answers impose the obligation to contribute new information. If a question has been answered, or an issue resolved, further information (new or not) relevant only to that question or issue cannot be relevantly stated. Having been answered or resolved the question or issue ceases to be of common interest. Hence the preferences for “the new” and for “minimization” that have been noted by divers writers.
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