Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

Discourse comprehension is the act of interpreting a written or spoken message by integrating the incoming information into the memory or knowledge structures of the interpreter. As such it involves social and pragmatic knowledge as well as grammatical and logical knowledge. Consider an example from Schank and Abelson (1977) : (1) “John went into a restaurant. He ordered a hamburger and coke, paid the check and left.” The statement is simple enough and comprehension of the word “check” in (1) above was probably effortless and automatic. But how does a participant in communication come to the correct meaning of the word “check”? There are other possibilities. The word (phonetic expression) “check” could have meant (a) a particular mark on a page (√), (b) a piece of paper for depositing money into a bank, (c) to leave a hat and coat in a coatroom, (d) to restrain, (e) to examine, or (f) a move in hockey. People are able to arrive at the correct meaning for the word “check” because they rely on prior knowledge structures such as →  scripts . When you encountered the word “restaurant” in (1) above a “restaurant” script was activated that contains considerable experiential knowledge about typical roles (waiters, cooks, customers), objects (menus, tables, silverware, cash register), goals (get food on time, waitress brings check), and activities (be seated, order food, get served, pay ... log in or subscribe to read full text