P(ragmatic)-trees. Coherence, intentionality and cognitive content in discourse and non-verbal action

Abstract

Abstract The starting point of this study is the adoption of the simple device of a tree structure as a working model for the analysis of pragmatic cohesion relations between successive actions of both discourse and non-verbal behavior. It is claimed that (i) cohesion relations, as represented by the nodes of such a P(ragmatic)-tree, are in the case of discourse classifiable into a limited number of recursively applicable types, and that (ii) this pragmatic structure, representing the intentionality of behavior, constitutes a level that underlies the more superficial syntactic and prosodic levels of discourse (‘pragmatics first’). The aims of this paper are: (1) to address a number of technical issues concerning the application of the tree device to spontaneous speech, concentrating on traditional preoccupations of the interpretative approach to discourse analysis, such as thematization, intonation and the scope of discourse markers and topics; (2) to investigate the implications of the ‘pragmatics first’ claim and of assuming a fundamental analogy between verbal and non-verbal actions for such theoretical issues as the relations between pragmatic structure and (semantic) content, and the dynamics of cognition in general and discourse in particular.