Discourse and the Non-Native English Speaker By Michael Cribb

coherence. It may be true that in well-planned monologues, such as speeches and presentations, the notion of a discourse topic to which all propositions relate is a valid one. However, in naturally occurring discourse, planning is minimal, which leads to local constraints on coherence dominating. In this case, it is difficult to see how at the start of an extended speech turn, a proposition representing the discourse topic can exist, particularly for the listener; it is only when the turn is completed that one, in theory, could be constructed.

Common Ground

According to Knott and Sanders (1998, p.138), when readers or listeners process a text they “construct a representation of the information it contains”. This cognitive representation, or mental model as some call it (e.g., Garnham & Oakhill, 1996), needs to “integrate the individual propositions expressed…into a larger whole” (Knott & Sanders, 1998, p. 138). This larger whole has been termed by some the common ground: the “shared knowledge, beliefs and suppositions” of the conversational participants (Wilkes-Gibbs, 1997, p. 239). Common ground according to Clark (1996) can be divided into three parts: initial common ground (background assumptions and beliefs), current state of the joint activity, and public events so far. A proposition is added to the common ground as it is uttered, provided it is sufficient for the current purpose. Common ground is, thus, contextual in that it is built on the surrounding circumstances, including the states of the participants' minds, and co-textual in that it relies on what has been said so far in the discourse. Whether the context and co-text are separate entities is a matter of debate, since it can be argued that as utterances are delivered, they become part of the context. However, I prefer to view discourse as carving out a ‘niche’ in the semantic space: anything that is uttered as part of the discourse acts to carve out this niche, and I will take this to be co-text. The niche can, of course, be quickly ‘filled in’ as participants move on to new topics and discourses. Anything which is present in the semantic space before the niche is constructed and which remains after it has been de-constructed will be considered part of the context.