The interdependence of common ground and context
-
Keith Allan
Abstract
The aim of this essay is to argue that common ground is context shared between S (speaker, writer, signer) and H (audience) under the following conditions: S utters υ, evoking context C1 (the ‘world and time spoken of’) so as to bring about in C3 (the ‘situation of interpretation’ from H’s point of view) H’s understanding υ in terms of the relevant beliefs that S holds or purports to hold in respect of uttering υ (i.e. speaking of C1) in C2 - the ‘world and time spoken in’ - which is the situation of utterance from S’s point of view. If C3 is very different from C2 such that H does not share some of S’s system of beliefs and assumptions, H may be well able to understand what S intended to mean; nevertheless, υ can have reduced comprehensibility and its psycho-social appropriateness may be differently evaluated from the way S expected to be understood: examples would be when a 21st century H reads a sonnet by William Shakespeare or, for another instance, reacts to Jeannie Gunn referring in 1908 to Indigenous Australians as niggers (despite her showing greater respect for their culture and land rights than most of her white contemporaries).
Abstract
The aim of this essay is to argue that common ground is context shared between S (speaker, writer, signer) and H (audience) under the following conditions: S utters υ, evoking context C1 (the ‘world and time spoken of’) so as to bring about in C3 (the ‘situation of interpretation’ from H’s point of view) H’s understanding υ in terms of the relevant beliefs that S holds or purports to hold in respect of uttering υ (i.e. speaking of C1) in C2 - the ‘world and time spoken in’ - which is the situation of utterance from S’s point of view. If C3 is very different from C2 such that H does not share some of S’s system of beliefs and assumptions, H may be well able to understand what S intended to mean; nevertheless, υ can have reduced comprehensibility and its psycho-social appropriateness may be differently evaluated from the way S expected to be understood: examples would be when a 21st century H reads a sonnet by William Shakespeare or, for another instance, reacts to Jeannie Gunn referring in 1908 to Indigenous Australians as niggers (despite her showing greater respect for their culture and land rights than most of her white contemporaries).
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Contents V
- Introduction 1
-
1 Understanding common ground
- The interdependence of common ground and context 7
- Understanding common ground as a cognitive object 25
- From laboratory to real life: Obstacles in common ground building 59
- Presupposition failures and the negotiation of the common ground 81
-
2 Emergent common ground
- Grounding emergent common ground: Detecting markers of emergent common ground in a YouTube discussion thread 105
- Co-constructing emergent common ground: The role of the intercultural mediator 135
- The co-construction of common ground through exemplars unique to an ESL classroom 163
-
3 Common ground building
- Mutual knowledge and the ‘hidden common ground’: An interdisciplinary perspective on mutual understanding in intercultural communication 197
- The linguistic code as basis for common ground building in English as a foreign language 219
- ELF disagreement as an interactional resource for doing interculturality 237
-
4 Common ground in different discourses
- Working offline: Common ground in written discourse 263
- Metapragmatic expressions as common ground builders in intercultural business communication 281
- Harmony and common ground: Aikido principles for intercultural training 305
- Contributors to this volume 337
- Index 339
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Contents V
- Introduction 1
-
1 Understanding common ground
- The interdependence of common ground and context 7
- Understanding common ground as a cognitive object 25
- From laboratory to real life: Obstacles in common ground building 59
- Presupposition failures and the negotiation of the common ground 81
-
2 Emergent common ground
- Grounding emergent common ground: Detecting markers of emergent common ground in a YouTube discussion thread 105
- Co-constructing emergent common ground: The role of the intercultural mediator 135
- The co-construction of common ground through exemplars unique to an ESL classroom 163
-
3 Common ground building
- Mutual knowledge and the ‘hidden common ground’: An interdisciplinary perspective on mutual understanding in intercultural communication 197
- The linguistic code as basis for common ground building in English as a foreign language 219
- ELF disagreement as an interactional resource for doing interculturality 237
-
4 Common ground in different discourses
- Working offline: Common ground in written discourse 263
- Metapragmatic expressions as common ground builders in intercultural business communication 281
- Harmony and common ground: Aikido principles for intercultural training 305
- Contributors to this volume 337
- Index 339
