Constructions of Intersubjectivity : Discourse , Syntax , and Cognition

Constructions of Intersubjectivity by Arie Verhagen is very much an intellectual product of our times. Combining current concerns in cognitive and evolutionary linguistics, and capitalizing—more, or less, explicitly—on a pragmatic lineage that goes back to H.P. Grice’s (1957) notion of reflexive intentions (i.e., intentions whose fulfillment consists in their recognition) and Anscombre and Ducrot’s (1983) theory of argumentation (i.e., the pervasiveness of the persuasive use of linguistic expressions), Constructions of Intersubjectivity takes these ideas to their natural conclusion, by proposing that ‘‘[l]inguistic expressions are primarily cues for making inferences . . . that lead to adequate next (cognitive, conversational, behavioral) moves’’ (p. 22). That is, unlike mere bundles of descriptive content, linguistic expressions function above all to coordinate the cognitive stances of speaker/writer and addressee toward some object of conceptualization. Or, in Verhagen’s words, ‘‘[t]he default condition for ordinary expressions is that they provide an argument for some conclusion, and this argumentative orientation is what is constant in the function of the expression, while its information value is more variable’’ (p. 10). This view of linguistic expressions as coordination devices turns (at least some) received views about language on their head: no longer an instrument for describing the world (whereby linguistic expressions inherit their meanings from the states of affairs they correspond to, as in the truth-conditional semantic tradition), neither a tool for communicating about the world (at least not if communication is programmatically restricted to ‘‘maximally efficient exchange of information,’’ as in Grice, 1975), language is now primarily a means for influencing each other’s cognitive states, a skill for representing the world as we see it, and, crucially, inviting others to see it through our eyes. Clearly, this conceptual shift from the ‘what’ (is talked about) of language to the ‘who’ (is talking) and ‘why’ is a far cry from current concerns in formal grammar and semantics. Yet, it comes naturally in the context of the cognitive linguistic tradition, in which this book is placed. The book is structured in four main chapters. Chapter 1 lays out the main theoretical components of the intersubjectivity approach and provides some definitions of basic terms, while chapters 2–4 deal with particular phenomena—negation, clausal complementation, and discourse connectives, respectively—which serve to flesh out the intersubjectivity approach, www.elsevier.com/locate/pragma Available online at www.sciencedirect.com