LINGUIST List 8.763

Wed May 21 1997

Books: Pragmatics

Editor for this issue: Ann Dizdar <annlinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. Tony Schiavo, New Books: Pragmatics

New Books from JOHN BENJAMINS PUBLISHING


PRAGMATICS:


REFERENCE AND REFERENT ACCESSIBILITY
Fretheim, Thorstein & Jeanette K. Gundel (eds.)
1996 xii, 312 pp. Pragmatics and Beyond New Series, 38
US/Canada: Cloth: 1 55619 331 9 Price: US$85.00
Rest of the world: Cloth: 90 272 5050 2 Price: Hfl. 150,--
John Benjamins Publishing web site: http://www.benjamins.com
For further information via e-mail: servicebenjamins.com
The papers in this volume are concerned with the question of how a
speaker's intended referent is interpreted by the addressee. Topics
include the interpretation of coreferential vs. disjoint reference,
the role of intonation, syntactic form and animacy in reference
understanding, and the way in which general principles of utterance
interpretation constrain possible interpretations of referring
expressions. The collection arises from a workshop on reference and
referent accessibility which was held at the 4th International
Pragmatics Conference in Kobe, Japan, July 25-30, 1993.


COMPUTER-MEDIATED COMMUNICATION. LINGUISTIC, SOCIAL AND CROSS-CULTURAL
PERSPECTIVES
Herring, Susan C. (ed.)
1996 viii, 326 pp. Pragmatics and Beyond New Series, 39
US/Canada: Cloth: 1 55619 800 0 Price: US$69.00
Paper: 1 55619 803 5 Price: US$29.95
Rest of the world: Cloth: 90 272 5051 0 Price: Hfl. 120,--
Paper: 90 272 5054 5 Price: Hfl. 60,--
John Benjamins Publishing web site: http://www.benjamins.com
For further information via e-mail: servicebenjamins.com
Text-based interaction among people connected via computer networks,
such as takes place via e-mail on the Internet and in synchronous
modes such as "chat", MUDs and MOOs, has attracted considerable
popular and scholarly attention. This collection of 14 articles on
text-based computer-mediated communication (CMC) is the first to bring
empirical evidence from a variety of disciplinary perspectives to bear
on questions raised by the new medium.
 Included are sections on how CMC with its unique structural
characteristics compares with speaking and writing, and on social and
ethical perspectives, exploring conflicts between the interests of
groups and those of individual users, including issues of on-line sex
and sexism.A third section describes the advantages and risks of using
CMC to communicate across cultures, while a final section deals with
the effects of CMC on group interaction: in a women's studies mailing
list, a hierarchically-organized workplace, and a public protest on
the Internet against corporate interests. The book's value is further
enhanced by an extensive, up-to-date bibliography including nearly 200
references to published research on CMC.

Questions? Contact Bernie Keck
Email: servicebenjamins.com