Gavins Joanna. Text World Theory: An Introduction

Edinburgh University Press, 2007. — 224 pages. — ISBN: 978-0-7486-2299-3; ISBN: 978-0-7486-2300-6.Text World Theory is a cognitive model of all human discourse processing. In this introductory textbook, Joanna Gavins sets out a usable framework for understanding mental representations. Text World Theory is explained using naturally occurring texts and real situations, including literary works, advertising discourse, the language of lonely hearts, horoscopes, route directions, cookery books and song lyrics. The book will therefore enable students, teachers and researchers to make practical use of the text-world framework in a wide range of linguistic and literary contexts.Conceptualising Language
The world in the mind
Language in the mind
Some history
Text World Theory
The structure of this book
Participating in Discourse
Interacting through language
Communicating in context
Making connections
Exploring context
Scenes
Building a text-world
World-building in practice
Shifting text-worlds
Processes
Advancing the text-world
Textual functions
Enactor relationships
Layers
Hierarchies
Transcending boundaries
Fictionality
Attitudes
Modality and desire
Obligation
Instruction and self-implication
Distances
Knowledge and belief
Perception
Hypotheticality
Narratives
Focalisation
Enactors and focalisation
Narrative deception
Double-vision
Understanding metaphor
Extended metaphor
Understanding double-vision
Double-vision and self-implication
Futures
Obscurity
Resistance
Performance
Text
Texture