Abstract
In this paper, I discuss some aspects of one of the thorniest problems of the theory of discourse processing: The role of knowledge in the production and understanding of discourse. Although there are a large number of articles and books on this topic, some very fundamental questions have as yet hardly been asked. Firstly, I review the scant references to the role of knowledge in discourse processing and then I outline a tentative typology around four groups of knowledge. I then address the key question of how these different types of knowledge play a role in discourse processing, focusing on some hypothetical processes involved in the production of discourse. I finish with a call for an explicit theory of text processing that integrates context models.
Highlights
In this paper, I discuss some aspects of one of the thorniest problems of the theory of discourse processing: The role of knowledge in the production and understanding of discourse
We barely find references to studies on knowledge in social psychology (e.g., Bar-Tal & Kruglanski, 1988; Fraser & Gaskell, 1990), sociology (e.g., Campbell & Manicom, 1995; Choo, 1998; Knorr-Cetina, 1999; Mannheim, 1952) and anthropology (Bateson, 1972; Fardon, 1995; Geertz, 1983)
The theory should explain which are the social, cultural and political conditions, structures and processes that are involved in the reproduction of knowledge in groups and cultures so that such knowledge can play a role in discourse processing of all group members
Summary
At least since the Ph.D. thesis of Eugene Charniak in 1972 we know that people need large amounts of knowledge in order to produce or understand even the simplest of children stories (Charniak, 1972). What is needed is a broad, multidisciplinary theory of knowledge, and based on that a sophisticated theory of the role of knowledge in discourse production and understanding Such a theory should define the very conceptual scope of the notion of knowledge, and specify the relations with other kinds of socially shared beliefs. The theory should explain which are the social, cultural and political conditions, structures and processes that are involved in the reproduction of knowledge in groups and cultures so that such knowledge can play a role in discourse processing of all group members. Of this vast theory -- which would constitute its own discipline if epistemology would not claim that, providing only a tiny, conceptual part of the theory -- I shall here very briefly deal with only some, rather neglected, aspects of the role of knowledge in theories of discourse processing
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