Context as Other Minds: The Pragmatics of Sociality, Cognition and Communication

Context as Other Minds......Page 2
Title page......Page 4
LCC data......Page 5
Dedication......Page 6
Contents......Page 8
Preface......Page 14
1.1. The conundrum of context......Page 18
1.2. Russell’s paradox......Page 19
1.3. Objectivism......Page 20
1.5. Other minds......Page 23
1.6. Recurrent themes......Page 25
1.7. Early roots......Page 32
1.8. Modern strands......Page 46
Notes......Page 53
2.1. Preamble......Page 56
2.2. Philosophical roots......Page 58
2.3. Linguistic roots......Page 60
2.4. Prototypes: The adaptive middle......Page 63
2.5. The adaptive underpinnings of prototype-like categories......Page 64
2.6. Some social consequences of natural categorization......Page 68
2.7. The cultural context of social decision-making......Page 73
Notes......Page 80
3.2. General design of the human communication system......Page 82
3.3. The generic lexicon as a network of nodes and connections......Page 86
3.4. Metaphoric or non-literal meaning......Page 89
3.5. Figurative language and semantic networks......Page 101
3.6. Adaptive motivation and frequency distribution of figurative language......Page 103
3.7. Final reflections......Page 105
Notes......Page 106
4.1. Sociality, communication and other minds......Page 108
4.2. Mental models......Page 109
4.3. Grammar......Page 112
4.4. Grammar and other minds......Page 117
4.5. The selectivity of mental models......Page 123
4.6. Other minds in an evolutionary perspective......Page 125
Notes......Page 140
5.1. Coherence as mental operations......Page 142
5.2. Coherence as grounding......Page 143
5.3. Use frequency, markedness and cognitive status......Page 156
5.4. Cognitive model......Page 158
5.5. Discussion......Page 162
Notes......Page 164
6.1. Propositions vs. speakers......Page 166
6.2. Epistemic modalities......Page 167
6.3. Tense......Page 170
6.4. Aspect......Page 173
6.5. Deontic sub-modes of irrealis......Page 179
6.6. The pragmatics of NEG-assertions......Page 183
6.7. Evidentiality......Page 185
6.8. Knowledge and power: The interaction between epistemics and deontics......Page 188
Notes......Page 194
7.1. Reorientation......Page 196
7.2. Clause chaining......Page 197
7.3. Pre-initial clauses (‘coherence bridges’)......Page 199
7.4. Chain-initial vs. chain-medial clauses......Page 203
7.5. Clause-level vs. chain-level conjunction......Page 205
7.6. Chain-medial cataphoric switch-reference (DS) devices......Page 208
7.7. Recapitulation: clause chaining and other minds......Page 210
Notes......Page 211
8.1. The scientist vs. the organism......Page 212
8.2. Reductionist extremes in the philosophy of science......Page 213
8.3. The pragmatics of empirical science......Page 220
8.4. Multiple loci of pragmatic inference in the empirical cycle......Page 232
8.5. The social pragmatics of science: Community as other minds......Page 233
Notes......Page 237
9.1. Preamble......Page 238
9.2. The essentialist self......Page 239
9.3. The multiple self......Page 241
9.4. The impaired self......Page 245
9.5. The complex self as an adaptive strategy......Page 251
Notes......Page 254
10.2. Adaptive realism: There shall be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth......Page 256
10.3. The paradox of Karma......Page 258
10.4. Tao and Wu-Wei......Page 259
10.6. Wu-Wei as strategy......Page 260
10.7. The paradox of the invisible leader......Page 262
10.8. The yoga of form......Page 263
10.9. The ritualization of form......Page 264
10.10. Complexity: Seven paradoxes......Page 265
Notes......Page 271
References......Page 272
Index......Page 292