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Appropriateness

An adaptive view
  • Thanh Nyan
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Context and Appropriateness
This chapter is in the book Context and Appropriateness

Abstract

Building on previous work predicated on the co-evolution of language and the brain, this article takes the view that (a) appropriate behavior – linguistic or otherwise – is adaptive; (b) from the standpoint of the speaker’s processing system, it is chiefly a matter of activating skills arising from background knowledge. This background knowledge, I begin by arguing, should be seen as part of a decision-making process, as construed by Damasio (1994). Next I provide a sketch of how appropriate behavior arises from the corresponding memory system. Following this I set reasons for viewing linguistic appropriate behavior in terms of the same apparatus. In the final section I consider the implications of this adaptive perspective for the notion of context.

Abstract

Building on previous work predicated on the co-evolution of language and the brain, this article takes the view that (a) appropriate behavior – linguistic or otherwise – is adaptive; (b) from the standpoint of the speaker’s processing system, it is chiefly a matter of activating skills arising from background knowledge. This background knowledge, I begin by arguing, should be seen as part of a decision-making process, as construed by Damasio (1994). Next I provide a sketch of how appropriate behavior arises from the corresponding memory system. Following this I set reasons for viewing linguistic appropriate behavior in terms of the same apparatus. In the final section I consider the implications of this adaptive perspective for the notion of context.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Introduction
  4. Context, contexts and appropriateness 3
  5. Part I. Bridging problems between context and appropriateness
  6. Similar situations 31
  7. Appropriateness and felicity conditions: A theoretical issue 55
  8. Appropriateness 79
  9. Part II: Bridging problems between communicative action and appropriateness
  10. If I may say so 115
  11. The appropriateness of questions 147
  12. Cooperative conflict and evasive language 167
  13. Part III: Bridging problems between micro and macro
  14. The attenuating conditional 203
  15. Collaborative use of contrastive markers 235
  16. Index 261
https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.162.06nya

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Introduction
  4. Context, contexts and appropriateness 3
  5. Part I. Bridging problems between context and appropriateness
  6. Similar situations 31
  7. Appropriateness and felicity conditions: A theoretical issue 55
  8. Appropriateness 79
  9. Part II: Bridging problems between communicative action and appropriateness
  10. If I may say so 115
  11. The appropriateness of questions 147
  12. Cooperative conflict and evasive language 167
  13. Part III: Bridging problems between micro and macro
  14. The attenuating conditional 203
  15. Collaborative use of contrastive markers 235
  16. Index 261
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