Introduction

[Steve Oswald]

New to the list

Dear all,

I'm a 3rd year PhD student currently working at the University of 
Neuchâtel, Switzerland, under the supervision of Professor Louis de 
Saussure. My topic of research is uncooperative communication (e.g. 
manipulation), argumentation and persuasion, from a cognitive pragmatic 
perspective. I'm interested in accounts of manipulative discourse, so as 
to - hopefully - elaborate a pragmatic model of uncooperative discourse 
processing.

I have already worked on manipulation as an undergrad (University of 
Geneva), notably in relation to Peronist speeches from the 1940s-1950s 
(Juan Domingo and Evita Perón, Argentina). I chose to continue in this 
direction, trying to address the conditions under which a hearer comes 
to miss certain relevant information, notably by being led to refrain 
from thinking critically about the information s/he is processing. In 
particular, I am interested in both cognitive and sociolinguistic 
research on the topic. Right now I am working on a theoretical aspect of 
the phenomenon, questioning whether post- and neo-gricean accounts of 
intentional meaning (Sperber & Wilson, Carston, Horn, Levinson, etcl.) 
can account for manipulation.

On a more global note, I am interested in general linguistics, semantics 
and pragmatics more broadly, argumentation studies, discourse analysis, 
cognitive linguistics, CDA and the notion of commitment in any of these 
fields. Any input on my topic of research or any of these topics is more 
than welcome. I'll be delighted to correspond.

Best wishes,
Steve


-- 
Steve Oswald
Assistant doctorant
Bureau 3.0.18
Institut des Sciences du langage et de la communication
Université de Neuchâtel
Espace Louis Agassiz 1
CH-2000 Neuchâtel /Suisse
Tel: 032 / 718.18.35
http://www.steveoswald.tk