discourse analysis Grami

Question: What is a situated meaning?Answer: A context-specific meaning created "on the spot" based on our past experiences and understanding of the context.

Question: Give an example of a situated meaning.Answer: "The coffee spilled, get a mop" versus "The coffee spilled, get a broom." The interpretation of "coffee" changes with the context.

Question: What is reflexivity in language?Answer: Reflexivity is the property of language that allows it to create and reflect the contexts in which it is used.

Question: How does reflexivity relate to discourse analysis?Answer: Reflexivity highlights the dynamic nature of language and its ability to adapt to different situations, tying back to the six building tasks of discourse analysis.

Question: Where do situated meanings reside?Answer: Situated meanings are often negotiated between people through communicative social interaction.

Question: Give an example of negotiating situated meanings.Answer: Someone saying "I think good relationships shouldn’t take work" and the following conversation involving negotiating what "work" means in that specific context.

Question: What are cultural models?Answer: Cultural models are "storylines," families of connected images (like a mental movie), or (informal) "theories" shared by specific social or cultural groups.

Question: How do cultural models help explain situated meanings?Answer: Cultural models explain why words have various situated meanings according to the standards of the group and help those meanings grow.

Question: How are cultural models stored and shared?Answer: Cultural models are not completely stored in any one person’s head. They are distributed across the different sorts of "expertise" and viewpoints found in the group.

Question: Give an example of a cultural model related to "coffee."Answer: The cultural model for "coffee" involves berries being picked, prepared as beans or grain, and made into a drink or flavorings, with different types of coffee having different social and cultural implications.

Question: How do cultural models link to each other?Answer: Cultural models link to each other in complex ways to create bigger storylines and help organize the thinking and social practices of sociocultural groups.

Question: Give an example of a cultural model related to raising young children.Answer: Children are born dependent on their parents and go through stages of disruptive behaviors in pursuit of independence, integrating models for children, child-rearing, stages, development, and independence.

Question: What is reflexivity in language?Answer: Reflexivity is the property of language that allows it to reflect and construct the contexts in which it is used.

Question: Give an example of reflexivity in a simple dialogue.Answer: In the exchange "How are ya?" and "Fine" between colleagues, the situation is taken as a brief, mundane encounter because these words are used. Had the exchange opened with "What’s YOUR problem?", the situation would be construed differently.

Question: What question does reflexivity in language raise?Answer: Reflexivity raises the chicken and egg question: Which comes first, the situation or the language?

Question: How does reflexivity reflect the relationship between language and reality?Answer: Reflexivity reflects the reciprocity between language and reality, where language simultaneously reflects reality ("the way things are") and constructs it to be a certain way.

Question: What analogy is used to explain reflexivity?Answer: Reflexivity is explained as language and context being like two mirrors facing each other and constantly reflecting their own images back and forth.

Question: What is the focus of discourse analysis according to this section?Answer: The focus is not on languages at the level of English and Navaho, but on the different social languages within them.

Question: How do physicists, street-gang members, and "new capitalist" entrepreneurs differ in their use of language?Answer: They use different social languages with characteristic grammatical resources to carry out the six building tasks.

Question: What does it mean that all of us control many different social languages?Answer: It means we switch among them in different contexts, and no one is truly monolingual.

Question: What is "hybridization" of social languages?Answer: It is the mixing of social languages for specific purposes, which can sometimes create transformed or novel social meanings.