Narratology and Discourse Processing Author(s): Michel Grimaud Source: SubStance, Vol. 9, No. 3, Issue 28 (1980), pp.

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CRITICAL NOTES Narratology and Discourse Processing

MICHEL GRIMAUD

I SEMIOTICS, PRAGMATICS, NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION II FROM TEXTLINGUISTICS TO COGNITIVE SCIENCE III JOURNALS

The previous Critical Notes on "Psychology, Language, Esthetics, Computers" (Sub-Stance,n? 25, 1980) furnish a number of studies on discourse analysis and artificial intelligence (for instance entries 121 and 122) which may serve as introductions to the generally more specialized entries of the present Notes (Section II).* A new convergence of interests has recently been developing among researchers from varied backgrounds: -German and Dutch "textlinguistics"; -Philosophy of language (speech act theory) and, more broadly, pragmatics; -Cognitive psychology, especially those branches dealing with language and communication (psycholinguistics, discourse analysis); science, a new discipline linked to artificial intelligence and concerned with -Cognitive offering computer simulations of language and thought, i.e. programs which are cognitively humanlike rather than simply formally elegant. What is unusual about this situation is that a few of these researchers are (mostly German) literary theorists conversant in recent trends in logic, epistemology and the human sciences both in the United States and in Europe. As if the absence of time lag in the assimilation of research were not remarkable enough in itself, a few of those researchers (Beaugrande, van Dijk) are also contributing in a significant way to the new field. This new openness to different methodologies and disciplines has not produced miracles overnight: there are simply too few researchers committed to and capable of this kind of interdisciplinary rigor and imagination. Therefore, much of what will be found in the present Critical Notes is programmatic. It is not so much a new "paradigm" (Thomas Kuhn) as a differently oriented "research programme" (Imre Lakatos) which, because of its scope, is truly relevant to the theory of (literary) discourse as a part of social action and communication. *In order to appreciate the originality of the most important entries in Section II, a fair amount of knowledge of the basics of cognitive psychology and artificial intelligence is required. Entries 169, 171 and 173 may perhaps be read with minimal knowledge. Entries 170 and 174 require more familiarity but are indispensable. Working knowledge of the fields is provided by Margaret Boden's survey of Artificial intelligence (entry 122; Sub-Stance,no. 25) and by Peter Lindsay and Donald Norman's classic textbook on Human InformationProcessing(2nd edition, Academic Press, 1977). The latter book has been translated into Quebec French: Traitementde l'informationet comportementhumain (Montr6al, Editions Etudes Vivantes, 1980). For those semioticians and poeticians truly interested in contributing to a theory of (literary) discourse, I believe that the effort required is well worth their while. Sub-Stance N? 28, 1980

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Critical Notes
I 161 Semiotics, Pragmatics, Nonverbal communication

87

Dictionnaireraisonnede la theorie Algirdas Julien Greimas and Joseph Courtes. Semiotique. du langage. Hachette, 1979. A remarkably useful tool for those interested in semiotics of the Greimasiankind. All terms have been translated into English by D. Patte and M. Rengstorf. Francois Recanati. La Transparenceet l'enonciation.Pour introduirea la pragmatique.Seuil, 1979. An unusually clear survey of the origins and present theories of speech acts from Russell to Austin, Searle and Grice discussed from a French perspective (Benveniste, for example). The subtitle should be read as "an introduction to the concepts necessary for a study of pragmatics", but pragmatics are not the topic of this book.

162

163

Robert de Beaugrande. "The Pragmatics of Discourse Planning."Journal of Pragmatics,4 (1980), 15-42. "It is argued that the basic notions of natural language pragmatics cannot be the same as those of syntax and semantics as developed so far. Instead, pragmatics must be an empirically oriented theory of action and interaction" (p. 15). Such a pragmatics uses "conceptual dependency theory, in which language is a form of actions specified by goal-directed plans (e.g. Schank); plan theory... problem-solving theory (e.g. Newell and Simon); and procedural theory of discourse, in which language elements and systems are investigated with respect to how people utilize them in communication and processing" (p. 15).

164

Communications,no. 30, 1979 on "La Conversation" and no. 32, 1980 on "Les actes de discours". Both issues furnish present-state views of speech act theory in France.

165

non-verbales.P.U.F., 1980. Jacques Corraze. Les Communications The only survey of non-verbal communication in French is one of the best. Shirley Weitz. Nonverbal Communication:Readings with Commentary.Oxford University Press, 1979 (2nd revised edition). An outstanding selection of readings on facial expression and visual interaction, body movement and gesture, paralanguage, proximity behaviors, multichannel communication. Each section is preceded by an introduction which, in itself, provides possibly the best survey of the field. II From Textlinguistics to Cogpitive Science

166

167

Kommentierte Bibliographie. Wolfgang U. Dressier and Siegfried J. Schmidt. Textlinguistik. Wilhelm Fink Verlag, 1973. A 120-page selective annotated bibliography. Although it does not include pragmatics, this bibliography constitutes a useful historical introduction to the main issues in linguistics beyondthe sentenceas practiced by such important figures as Petofi, van Dijk or Weinrich. Because of its length and its selective nature, this bibliography may be read sequentially and forms, as such, an introduction to the topic. Wolfgang U. Dressier, editor. Current Trends in Textlinguistics.De Gruyter, 1977. A difficult present-state study of the different approaches to formal text grammars

168

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Michel Grimaud
and discourse studies, including oral texts and ethnomethodological issues written by European and American specialists.

169

Robert de Beaugrande and W.U. Dressier. Introductionto text linguistics.Longman, 1981. An updated and rethought version of Dressler's German-language introduction to the topic (Einfiihrung in die Textlinguistik,Niemeyer, 1972).

170

Robert de Beaugrande. Text, Discourse, and Process: Toward a MultidisciplinaryScience of Texts. Ablex Publishing Corporation, 1980. The most ambitious, and successful, survey of discourse to date. The dustcover summary is not, for once, out of place: "Text,Discourse,and Process is an innovative attempt to integrate a vast number of new research trends-in artificial intelligence, cognitive science, education, linguistics, and psychology-into a unified procedural model of the utilization of texts. Showing how language theories must be operationally conceived and empirically validated with studies of routine human activities in communication, TDP uses real texts (conversations, newspaper articles, poems, schoolbooks, stories, and many more) to outline the major issues a science of texts might be expected to address. Too, the author illustrates what these ideas mean for the practical concerns of language education: reading, readability studies, discourse and conversational analysis, error analysis, composition, and schooling in general." Beaugrande teaches English at the University of Florida in Gainesville.

171

Robert de Beaugrande and Benjamin N. Colby. "Narrative Models of Action and Interaction." Cognitive Science, 3 (1979), 43-66. This article provides an introduction to the types of issues discussed in the preceding entry. The authors analyze Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and, in detail, Tom Tit Tot to show "some issues which a humanlike story system ought to encompass but which are usually not in the main focus of narrative models since Propp. [They] argue that knowledge about actions and interactions can account not only for how stories are constructed but also for why some stories are more interesting and enduring than others" (p. 43).

172

An Teun A. van Dijk. Macrostructures: Interdisciplinary Studyof GlobalStructuresin Discourse, Interaction, and Cognition. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1980. Compared with Beaugrande's book (no. 170), van Dijk's is more difficult, less clear and not quite as broad in scope. However, it synthesizes and places in the context of other disciplines the author's previous seminal work on text grammars, the semantics and pragmatics of discourse and his studies with cognitive psychologist Walter Kintsch on discourse comprehension and production.

173

Roger Schank and Robert Abelson. Scripts,plans, goals and understanding:An Inquiryinto Human KnowledgeStructures.Lawrence Erlbaum, 1977. A seminal and readablebook on cognitive science written by two of its founders. The authors hypothesize that human knowledge is organized in script-like fashion so that we understand events (including stories) according to learned symbolic networks (belief systems etc.) which can be specified for computers-thus the possibility of providing them with world knowledge. Those scripts are homologous to the scripts gradually learned by children.

174

Philip N. Johnson-Laird and P.C. Wason, editors. Thinking:Readings in CognitiveScience. Cambridge University Press, 1977. The best survey of the field of cognitive science: problem solving, conceptual thinking, hypotheses, inference and comprehension, language, culture and thinking,

Critical Notes

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imagery and internal representation. The selections are almost always by the best authors in the field and each section is preceded by a thorough introduction which (as with Weitz, no. 166), in itself, constitutes an outstanding discussion of the findings and methods of the discipline. III 175 Journals

Poetics Today, Volume 1, Autumn 1979, on "Narratology" Published, like P.T.L. (which it replaces) by the Porter Institute for Poetics and Semiotics (Tel Aviv University). The journal is open to semiotics from all countries without the usual narrow-mindedness which characterizes the field. Volume 1, no. 3 is entitled "Narratology I: Poetics of Fiction". Poetics, Volume 9, no. 1-2 (1980), on "Story Comprehension" Special interdisciplinary issue guest edited by the ex-editor of Poetics,Teun van Dijk. (The present editor is Siegfried Schmidt.)

176

177

Text: An Interdisciplinary Journalfor the Study of Discourse,Volume 1, 1981. Edited by Teun A. van Dijk and Janos S. Petofi, Text "has been founded as an international forum for interdisciplinary research in the field of the study of discourse. The intention of the editorial board is to present in a single journal the kinds of articles which have been published in many journals in various disciplines which concern some aspect of texts and their cognitive, social or cultural contexts". Main areas covered: linguistics, semiotics, philosophy and logic, law, mass communication, poetics, psychology and artificial intelligence, sociology and anthropology, social psychology. Published by Mouton.

178

Discourse Processes:A Multidisciplinary Journal, Volume 1, 1978. Like Text it aims at providing a "source for the cross-fertilization of ideas on psychology and language" in such areas as "prose comprehension and recall dialogue analysis, text grammar construction, computer simulation of natural language, crosscultural comparisons of communicative experience" etc. Main areas: sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, ethnomethodology and the sociology of language, educational psychology, the philosophy of language and computer science. Published by Ablex.

179

and language. journal of artificial intelligence,psychology Cognitive Science. A Multidisciplinary Volume 1, 1977. As is obvious from the titles of the last two journals, there is a strong-and perhaps surprising-trend towards integration of different aspects of the human and social sciences. This is reflected in the new policy of CognitiveScience,starting with volume 4 (1980): "CognitiveScienceis multidisciplinary, requiring tools and insights from many different scientific areas. We intend to broaden the range of articles published in the journal to include more linguistics, philosophy, developmental psychology, cognitive anthropology, the neurosciences, etc. The goal is that the [Cognitive Science] Society and journal should reflect the broad range of interests and knowledge required for the emergence of a substantive science of cognition" (Editorial, C.S., 4, no. 1). Published by Ablex.