Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Pragmatic-functional approach

Critic: Where are you coming from on this?

Author: My position you mean?

Critic: Yes, your approach. You’re covering functionalism, sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, pragmatics, discourse, arts, media, you even divert into diversions.

Author: All of those, yes, and then some, I suppose.

Critic: Aren’t you afraid of covering too much ground, not digging deeply enough, spreading it all too thinly?

Author: If you must pursue all these agricultural allusions, of the ploughing not being thorough and there not being enough fertilizer. The farmer plodding through the field? But let me give you another metaphor, poetry. Think of the conversations as being like haiku. Not a great deal is said but key words ignite ideas in the mind of the reader. An associationist style.

Critic: With all due respect, it’s a bit difficult to write a treatise in verse.

Author: Just because it isn’t done often doesn’t mean it can’t be done. Anyway, it isn’t verse. It’s discussion.

Critic: Still, by covering so many topics, you lay yourself open to accusations of not being any kind of expert, or explorer or experimenter but rather a popularizer, a pretender, or a poser.

Author: Well, it’s not just reportage. There is a common theme. I have an approach, a central idea that I hark back to, that frames the commentary.

Critic: Hmm?

Author: You might call it a pragmatic-functionalist approach.

Critic: A what?

Author: Language as an instrument. It’s a tool. It helps us live our lives. We use language to get things done. We use language to express ourselves, to interact with others, to get others to do things, to entertain, to create. The approach begins with a question. Why is he or she saying what they are saying, the way they are saying it? What do they hope to gain, consciously or unconsciously?
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2 Comments:

At August 28, 2007 at 10:28 PM , Blogger Zen said...

Ah. This is a good point to plug my exclassmate's new blog. Re the agricultural angle.
http://nickbionic.blogspot.com/

 
At August 29, 2007 at 12:51 PM , Blogger Barry Natusch said...

Speaking of plugs... 29 August 2007 posting is on plug-ins.

 

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