Illustrates ways the theories and methods of linguistics can be used to analyze discourse. Uses reports from American print media discussing facets of the O.J. Simpson case, its verdict, and subsequent events. Suggests that this discourse, viewed as a composite whole, represents a culture's creation, disillusion, and reestablishment of its sense…

Raises the question of when extraordinary measures are justified in interpreting a discourse. Questions whether the same decoding strategies should be used to derive meaning from a schizophrenic's discourse as from that of a nonschizophrenic. (FL)

Distills a kernel story from separate narrative performances to facilitate comparison between them and to highlight their similarities and differences. Investigates immediate retelling for a newly-arrived listener, relating the same story for different audiences, and group reconstruction of a story already familiar to those present. Proposes…

Examines the impact of listeners on speakers' later memory for events. Shows that attentive listeners facilitate long-term memory, whereas situations with distracted listeners are difficult to distinguish from situations with no listener and with no recounting at all. (SR)

Argues that a major difficulty in formalizing linguistic dialogue interaction is the uncertainty arising from various factors. Advances proposals for capturing at least some of those factors in logical representations: topic/subtopic arrangement; semantic allocation; participants' competence; discourse goals; semantic, psychological, and pragmatic…

Compares three theories of coherence relations that differ in formality, broadness of coverage, and linguistic detail. Applies them to the concrete task of text analysis. Organizes the information according to principles of linguistic "stratification,""metafunction," and "paradigmatic/syntagmatic axiality," providing a three-way classification…

Reviews prior research to stress the functionality of fluidity in making ready information to support comprehension. Explores the fading of ready information, demonstrating how quickly the accessibility of information mutually known to two reunited characters fades when the text engages other topics. Describes a series of phenomena that cohere…

Focuses on whether women and men have different perceptions about when simultaneous talk becomes interruptive. Asks participants to judge whether 20 overlaps are interruptive when presented with a conflictive interview between a high-power female and a low-power male. Suggests that verbal aggressiveness is a better predictor of recognition of…

Tests D. Schiffrin's hypothesis that the choice between "CAUSE so RESULT" sequences and "RESULT because CAUSE" sequences is determined by topic continuity against British conversational data from the London-Lund Corpus of Spoken English. Produces results similar to Schiffrin's. Concludes that these studies reveal a cohesive…

Describes international amateur radio talk (IART) as a clear case of the significance of the channel or medium as a restrictive factor in discourse and analyzes sample texts of IART. (HTH)

Notes that, since fictional discourse need not reflect prevailing systems of meaning and norms or values, readers gain detachment from their own presuppositions; by constituting and formulating text-sense, readers are constituting and formulating their own cognition and becoming aware of the operations for doing so. (FL)

A study was conducted to determine the boundary conditions under which schemata influenced the encoding and retrieval of prose. Results showed that during immediate recall, either an encoding or retrieval perspective influenced recall; however, when recall was delayed, only the encoding perspective influenced recall. (FL)

Proposes a taxonomy that classifies coherence relations in discourse in terms of four cognitively salient primitives, such as the polarity of the relationship and the pragmatic or semantic character of the link between the units. Finds experimental support for the relevance and psychological salience of the taxonomic primitives. (SR)

Investigates whether children's representations of the linguistic description of a goal-directed event was similar to their representation of the same event observed visually. Finds that mode of presentation did not affect the recall of most important actions, but that verbal description led to recall characterized by greater cohesion than visual…

Analyzes three Dutch connectives. Argues that the crucial distinction between the pragmatic nature of causal and contrastive connectives should be made on an underlying level, the so-called Basic Scheme, and its relationship to the surface utterance. Establishes a relation between semantic and pragmatic use of a connective, and the ideational and…