کد مقاله | کد نشریه | سال انتشار | مقاله انگلیسی | نسخه تمام متن |
---|---|---|---|---|
934960 | 923727 | 2013 | 9 صفحه PDF | دانلود رایگان |
The role of conscious attention in language processing has been scarcely considered, despite the wide-spread assumption that verbal utterances manage to attract and manipulate the addressee’s attention. Here I claim that this assumption is to be understood not as a figure of speech but instead in terms of attentional processes proper. This hypothesis can explain a fact that has been noticed by supporters of Relevance Theory in pragmatics: the special role played by speaker-related information in utterance interpretation. I argue that representation of the speaker in working memory reliably enhances the activation of speaker-related information and, consequently, the role it plays in determining the content of interpretations.
► I show that attentional processes have an important – though scarcely addressed – role to play in language understanding.
► Specifically, they can explain how speaker-related information does normally gain prominence in utterance understanding.
► This is because representation of the speaker in working memory enhances the activation of speaker-related information.
► Such a mechanism involves the cooperation between attention and associative processes.
► Therefore, associative accounts in pragmatics must (and can) be complemented by consideration of attentional processes.
Journal: Language & Communication - Volume 33, Issue 2, April 2013, Pages 106–114