Context (Context & Content)

Robert Stalnaker Explores The Contexts In Which Speech Takes Place, The Ways We Represent Them, And The Roles They Play In Explaining The Interpretation And Dynamics Of Speech. The Central Thesis That Guides The Exploration Is The Autonomy Of Pragmatics: That It Is Possible And Fruitful To Theorize About The Structure And Function Of Discourse Independently Of Specific Theory About The Mechanisms That Languages Use To Serve Those Functions. Stalnakerdefends The Thesis By Developing Some Pragmatic Theory To Illustrate It, And By Applying That Theory To The Explanation Of A Range Of Specific Linguistic Phenomena.