Introduction

[Gisela Redeker]

Hi,

This is Gisela Redeker, professor of Communication at Groningen
University (in the Netherlands). My academic degrees are in
Psychology (Diplom, Göttingen, 1979; PhD, UC Berkeley, 1986 (working
mainly with Herb Clark, Dan Slobin, Eleanor Rosch, and Sue Ervin
Tripp)), but I have been working in various Dutch Linguistics
departments ever since. Here at Groningen, where I became chair of
Communication Studies in the Linguistics Department in 1997, I am
coordinating an interdisciplinary research group on "Discourse and
Communication" (our web site at
	http://www.let.rug.nl/clcg/dc/
will be updated soon).

My past research interests have included: common ground, reference,
and syntax in conversation; genre and register; discourse markers,
textual structures, discourse coherence; mental spaces in discourse;
quotation; gender and interruptions; and rhetorical and interpersonal
elements in persuasive discourse--all studied from a cognitive-
psychological / linguistic perspective, often inspired and enriched
by the work of Herbert H. Clark (recent book: H.H. Clark (1996):
Using Language. Cambridge University Press).

In the past couple of years, I have been reading up on communication
theory, including mass communication theories, cultural studies,
critical discourse analysis, and studies on computer-mediated
communication and organizational aspects of the introduction of
information and communication technologies. I've been supervising
some student research in these areas, but have not yet defined a
coherent project in any sub-area.

Wrt discourse, I am planning to extend my interests to prosodic and
visual aspects of communication, as it is finally becoming feasible
to create and manipulate multimedia databases of face-to-face
interactions (where sound and video are linked to the transcription,
codings, and annotations; software for such corpora is being
developed in various places, for instance at the Max Planck Institut
für Psycholinguistik, Nijmegen, see
	http://www.mpi.nl/world/tg/technical.html
where they describe i.a. their Spoken CHILDES and CAVA tools). Those
tools will also be valuable for semiotic analyses of audio-visual
communication (in film, tv, or internet), aiding further integration
in the wide diversity of approaches to discourse and communication.


Sorry if this got rather long for an introduction
and possibly also a bit technical/jargony in places.

I look forward to *your* introductions
and to inspiring discussions on this list!

Gisela

| Gisela Redeker, Professor, Dept. of Language and Communication |
| University of Groningen,  P.O.Box 716,  NL-9700 AS Groningen   |
| tel:  +31-50-3635973/-5858     fax:  +31-50-3636855            |
| e-mail: G.Redeker at let.rug.nl   http://www.let.rug.nl/~redeker/ |