CfP: Lexical Markers of Common Grounds

[Kerstin Fischer]

Dear colleagues,

In line with the conference theme "Linguistic pluralism: Policies,
practices and pragmatics" to be held at the 8th International
Pragmatics Conference in Toronto, Canada, 13-18 July 2003, we invite
contributions to a panel on

LEXICAL MARKERS OF COMMON GROUNDS

Common ground is central to any theory of pragmatics,
sociolinguistics, discourse and context.  Yet, common ground
is a multifaceted, heterogeneous category. In monological
theories of context, common ground is seen as consisting of
true propositions only, and the term is frequently used
synonymously with the notions of background assumptions,
presuppositions and different types of context. Also in the
fields of pragmatics and context, a product-oriented
conception of common ground prevails, to which true
propositions are added. In the fields of sociolinguistics
and discourse analysis, a process-oriented approach to
common ground is preferred according to which common ground
is negotiated and reconstructed by the coparticipants in
interaction. Thus, some of these aspects, such as
solidarity, power, ethnicity and gender, have long been
acknowledged as not given, but as jointly constructed in the
interaction by the employment of particular lexical markers
and social practices. To bridge the gap between a conception
of common ground as either process or product, the notion of
conversational record (Thomason 1992), and the
differentiation between personal and cultural common ground
(Clark 1996), as well as a default-context notion and a
context-dependent notion of a dialogue common ground (Fetzer
2002) are of relevance.

A dynamic conception of common grounds requires the
permanent negotiation of the common situation. For this
reason, coparticipants display to each other - and to their
possible audiences - what they consider to be the common
ground of the interaction. One such mechanism consists of
the use of particular lexical markers that serve the
speakers as presentations of what they assume to be common
ground. The functional category lexical marker subsumes
various types of pragmatic markers, including inference
triggers and illocutionary force indicating devices.
Lexical markers express relational meanings which are
calculated with regard to the marker's connectedness with
the proposition, the force of the utterance and the local
and global contexts.

The goal of this panel on Lexical Markers of Common Grounds
is to encourage interdisciplinary discussion on these two
primarily sociopragmatic notions in order to further our
understanding of the complex processes involved in producing
and interpreting lexical markers and of their relevance and
function in administering common grounds. We invite
contributions that address the nature of these lexical cues
as well as the mechanisms by means of which they fulfil
their function to interactively negotiate aspects of common
grounds.

If you would like to contribute to this panel, please send an
abstract of about 500 words by September 15, 2002 to either:


Anita Fetzer                   Kerstin Fischer
University of Stuttgart        University of Bremen - Fachbereich 10
Institute of Linguistics:      Sprach- und Literaturwissenschaften
English Linguistics            Postfach 330440
Keplerstr. 17                  D-28334 Bremen
D-70174 Stuttgart              Germany
Germany
tel: +49 711 121-3120/3115     tel: +49 40 42883-2516
fax: +49 711 121-3122          fax: +49 40 42883 2515
anita at ifla.uni-stuttgart.de    kerstinf at uni-bremen.de

     http://www.fb10.uni-bremen.de/anglistik/homepages/fischer.htm
     http://ifla.uni-stuttgart.de/fetzer/index.html


For details on conference arrangements, see the IPrA website at
<http://www.uia.ac.be/ipra/>. NOTE: IPrA membership will be required
for all accepted presenters.