Context in the System and Process of Language - The Collected Works of Ruqaiya Hasan Vol 4 - Ruqaiya Hasan†
3. What's going on?: a dynamic view of context in language [1981]
Context in the System and Process of Language - The Collected Works of Ruqaiya Hasan Vol 4 - Ruqaiya Hasan†
Ruqaiya Hasan† [+]
Macquarie University
Description
Coded messages, passed between us, turn the subjective into the intersubjective, the private into the public. As Hasan explains in What’s Going On?: A dynamic view of context in language (1981), there are multiple semiotic codes at work in both text creation and interpretation. Formed out of systems of social convention, these codes not only convey but also shape our perception. The individual, writes Hasan, ‘can be seen as a being who has been actively shaped by the sum of his own interactions and hence by the nature of the multiple semiotic codes prevalent in his community.’ The blurring of artificially imposed dichotomies between the individual and the social, the unique and the conventional follows from an appreciation of the inherently social nature of interaction, ‘no matter how personal the ends it is made to achieve.’