The last decade has seen a fundamental rethinking of the concept of context. Rather than functioning solely as a constraint on linguistic performance, context is now also analysed as a product of language use. In this new perspective, language and context are seen as interactively achieved phenomena, rather than predefined sets of forms and contents. The essays in this collection, written by many of the leading figures in the social sciences, critically reexamine the concept of context from a variety of different angles and propose new ways of thinking about it with reference to specific human activities such as face-to-face interaction, radio talk, medical diagnosis, political encounters and socialisation practices. Each essay is prefaced by an introduction by the editors which provides relevant theoretical and methodological background and demonstrates its relation to other essays in the volume. The editors' general introduction provides a lucid overview of the issues currently debated. Rethinking Context will be required reading for everyone working within the fields of linguistic anthropology, sociolinguistics, discourse analysis, pragmatics, conversation analysis and the sociology of language.

The essays in this collection critically re-examine the concept of context from a variety of different angles.
Reviews
"This collection of extremely well-written and well-argued essays will have a broad appeal for students of language, interaction, coversation analysis, discourse analysis, and sociolinguistics. This book will be useful for graduate courses in those areas, as well as in qualitative methodology, because defining and understanding context are important for qualitative research, not just that which directly focuses on language use." Angela Garcia, Contemporary Sociology
"The perspectives represented in the volume are wide-ranging and impressive....The editors, in particular, and their contributors have done the field a service by offering it this volume, the most successful and thought-provoking collection of papers by various researchers that I have seen in some time." Keith Walters, Anthropological Linguistics
"...a highly useful demonstration of both the numerous versions of context available in the literature and the importance of being precise in what one means by the term in any particular instance." Gary D. Prideaux, Canadian Journal of Linguistics



Book Information
ISBN 9780521422888
Author Alessandro Duranti
Format Paperback
Page Count 372
Imprint Cambridge University Press
Publisher Cambridge University Press
Weight(grams) 600g
Dimensions(mm) 229mm * 152mm * 21mm