Context in the System and Process of Language - The Collected Works of Ruqaiya Hasan Vol 4 - Ruqaiya Hasan†
4. Wherefore context?: the ontogenesis of context in the system and process of language [2001]
Context in the System and Process of Language - The Collected Works of Ruqaiya Hasan Vol 4 - Ruqaiya Hasan†
Ruqaiya Hasan† [+]
Macquarie University
Description
‘Wherefore context? The ontogenesis of meaning exchange’ (2001), the concluding chapter in this first section on Language in the context of life in society was first presented at the International Conference on Discourse Analysis at the University of Macau in October 1997. Unapologetically, Hasan begins by acknowledging that the paper ‘offers neither any technicalities that can be readily borrowed and quickly applied to the analysis of another text of one’s choosing, nor does it make an appeal to our moral sense of responsibility.’ Hoping instead to ‘enhance our understanding of the place of context in the system and process of language’, she puts forward a way of conceptualizing the category of context which rests on the principle that society, semiosis and the brain form ‘a trinity no one member of which can exist without the other two.’