Cover not available

In:Communicating Certainty and Uncertainty in Medical, Supportive and Scientific Contexts
Edited by Andrzej Zuczkowski, Ramona Bongelli, Ilaria Riccioni and Carla Canestrari
[Dialogue Studies 25] 2014
► pp. 99–114

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload Book PDF
authorization required

Uncertainty as integrated part of meaning and understanding

 | A*STAR – Institute of High Performance Computing, Singapore
Published online: 26 November 2014
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/ds.25.05fel
In this chapter, we discuss the issue of uncertainty in language and communication. The starting point for the discussion is Weigand’s (2010) Mixed Game Model, a theory of dialogic language use. Feller’s (2010) meaning-in-use, which conceptualizes meaning construction as a dialogic process, puts the focus on meaning and understanding in dialog. Against this theoretical background, we discuss the roles of uncertainty in dialog, especially in the context of speaker interests, cross-cultural communication, and inner dialog. We will therefore look into the different knowledge types that are integrated in language use and which are used by the dialog partners to construct meaning and interpret utterances. The main argument is that these knowledge types are veined with blind spots for the dialog partners, which they fill in with their expectations along measures of probability. Uncertainty is thus an integrated part of dialogic language use.
References (15)
References
Calder, Lendol Glen. 1999. Financing the American Dream. A Cultural History of Consumer Credit. Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Clark, Herbert H. 1996. Using Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Damasio, Antonio R. 2012. Self Comes to Mind. Constructing the Conscious Brain. London: Vintage.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Everett, Daniel L. 2012. Language. The Cultural Tool. London: Profile Books.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Feller, S. 2010. Lexical Meaning in Dialogic Language Use. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Grice, Herbert P. 1989. Studies in the Way of Words. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Levinson, Stephen. 2009. “Language and Mind: Let’s Get the Issues Straight!” In Making Sense of Language. Readings in Culture and Communication, ed. by Susan D. Blum, 95–104. 
Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Maturana, Humberto R. 1980. Autopoiesis and Cognition. Dordrecht, Boston: Reidel, Kluwer. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Puchalska-Wasyl, Malgorzata, and Piotr Oles. 2013. “Doubtfulness - A Dialogic Perspective.” Psychology of Language and Communication 17 (2): 101–113. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Riccioni, Ilaria, Ramona Bongelli, and Andrzej Zuczkowski. 2013. “The Communication of Certainty and Uncertainty in Italian Political Media Discourses.” In The Pragmatics of Political Discourse: Explorations Across Cultures, ed. by Anita Fetzer, 125–166. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sampson, Geoffrey. 2005. The “Language Instinct” Debate. Rev. ed. London, New York: Continuum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Searle, John R. 1979. Expression and Meaning. Studies in the Theory of Speech Acts. Cambridge, Eng, New York: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Weigand, Edda. 2009. Language as Dialogue. From Rules to Principles of Probability, ed. by 
Sebastian Feller. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2010. Dialogue. The Mixed Game (Dialogue studies, 10). Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wolfram, Stephen. 2002. A New Kind of Science. Champaign, IL: Wolfram Media.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue