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Co-published with the Summer Institute of Linguistics and University Press of America, Man and Message provides a practical method of analyzing texts based on a cognitive, multilevel model of meaning presented in simple, non-technical language for a wide audience.
It begins with a demonstration of human communications as grounded in a cognitive and language-independent meaning base, and details the non-verbal nature of meaning, purpose, conceptualization, thematic patterns, and coherence-providing relations. Then the model is applied to a variety of English texts by dividing it into subunits and displaying their inter-relations at all levels. Each chapter provides pointers in analyses that can be applied to any text in any language. The approach to analysis from a standpoint of cognition realized in language, rather than based in the language itself makes this an original and effective guide for text analysis of any kind in any language.
Kathleen Callow has worked in translation projects in Brazil and Ghana. She served as translation consultant for languages in the Former Soviet Union and neighboring countries. She has an MA in Philosophy from the University of Glasgow, Scotland, and a B.Div. from London Bible College.
Foreword Preface
1.1 Meanings and their expressions closely intertwined 1.2 Meanings and their expressions necessarily distinguished 1.3 What is left of meanings if we take away the words? 1.4 So what is meaning?
2.1 One approach: words prior to meanings 2.2 An alternative approach: meanings prior to words
3.1 Why do we communicate? 3.2 What mental characteristics structure our communications?
4.1 Before speech starts: the shared situation 4.2 Before speech starts: the participants’ mutual awareness 4.3 While communication flows: the monitoring process 4.4 Situations involving multiple participants
5.1 How do words relate to the world? 5.2 The traditional view of concepts 5.3 An alternative approach: concepts as habitual events 5.4 The origins of conceptual events 5.5 The structure of conceptual events 5.6 Concepts in use 5.7 Concepts and the real world
6.1 The springs of speech 6.2 The storage of speech 6.3 Speech as signals 6.4 Words and meaning in different languages 6.5 A theory note: analogies of mental activity 6.6 Looking beyond words
7.1 Distinguishing message form from message meaning 7.2 Criteria for identifying import 7.3 The three imports 7.4 The emotions in relation to the three imports
8.1 The possibility of multiple import 8.2 Apparent double import 8.3 Genuine double import 8.4 Apparent single import with extended significance 8.5 The purposive chain 8.6 Informationals with a variety of purposes 8.7 Multiple import in longer messages
9.1 A problem: parts of communications without import 9.2 Solution: non-import-bearing elements as message support 9.3 The functions of message support 9.4 Longer utterances as message support 9.5 A problem relating to informationals
10.1 Cognitive characteristics of messages 10.2 The units constituting messages 10.3 The message and its network of relations 10.4 The prosodies of the message 10.5 Monitoring features of the message 10.6 Special prominence 10.7 Looking ahead to Part 2
11.1 Approaching the analysis of texts 11.2 Situational prosodies: the context of the message 11.3 Referential prosodies: the content of the message 11.4 Person-related prosodies 11.5 Special prominence
12.1 The difference between schematic and nonschematic patterns 12.2 The sources of schema patterns 12.3 Schema patterns in the three message genres 12.4 Messages with nonschematic patterns
13.1 The nature of configurations 13.2 Referential analysis 13.3 Purposive analysis 13.4 Boundary-marking phenomena
14.1 What is a topic? 14.2 The functions of a topic 14.3 The signaling of a topic 14.4 Identifying the topic in a text or configuration 14.5 How a topic develops
15.1 Theme as a cognitive reality 15.2 Theme as purposive and prominent 15.3 Theme in different text types 15.4 Establishing the theme of a themeline text 15.5 Establishing the theme of a timeline text 15.6 Complex themes 15.7 Configurations without themes
16.1 The nature of referential relations 16.2 The signaling of relations 16.3 Relations involving time and causality 16.4 Relations involving envisaging and causality 16.5 Reporting relations 16.6 A worked example: The Picnic
17.1 Associative relations 17.2 Monitoring relations 17.3 Relations between a proposition and a concept 17.4 The authorial comment-HEAD relation 17.5 A worked example: Daffodil Leaves 2-12
18.1 The nature of the proposition 18.2 The referential elements in a proposition 18.3 Structural patterns of propositions
19.1 The heart of the message 19.2 Propositionalising all referential content unambiguously 19.3 Making the relational framework explicit 19.4 Representing only referential material 19.5 Propositional displays of texts 19.6 Analysed examples of propositional displays
20.1 The message as a unit 20.2 The units and schema relations of the message 20.3 The propositions and referential relations of the message 20.4 The theme and schematic outline of the message
Conclusion Appendix: The Texts Bibliography Index