For more than a decade, linguistics has moved increasingly away from evaluating language as an autonomous phenomenon, towards analysing it 'in use', and showing how its function within its social and interactional context plays an important role in shaping in its form. Bringing together state-of-the-art research from some of the most influential scholars in linguistics today, this Handbook presents an extensive picture of the study of language as it used 'in context' across a number of key linguistic subfields and frameworks. Organised into five thematic parts, the volume covers a range of theoretical perspectives, with each chapter surveying the latest work from areas as diverse as syntax, pragmatics, psycholinguistics, applied linguistics, conversational analysis, multimodality, and computer-mediated communication. Comprehensive, yet wide-ranging, the Handbook presents a full description of how the theory of context has revolutionised linguistics, and how its renewed study is crucial in an ever-changing world.
Introduction: language in context studies Jesús Romero-Trillo; Part I. Language in Context: A Socio-Historical Perspective: 1. Conversation analysis John Heritage; 2. Context in historical linguistics Elizabeth Traugott; 3. Context in discourse analysis Cedric Deschrijver and Alexandra Georgakoupolou; Part II. Philosophical, Semantic and Grammatical Approaches to Context: 4. Philosophy of language and action theory Maria de Ponte, Kepa Korta and John Perry; 5. A functional approach to context Rebekah Wegener & Lise Fontaine; 6. The grammar of incremental language production in context Lachlan Mackenzie; 7. Cognitive linguistics and context Dirk Geeraerts; Part III. Pragmatic Approaches to Context: 8. The role of context in Gricean and Neo-Gricean pragmatics Jacques Moeschler; 9. Sociopragmatics and context Sophia Marmaridou; 10. Natural semantic metalanguage and context Anna Gladkova; 11. Relevance theory and context Deirdre Wilson; 12. The interplay of linguistic, conceptual and encyclopedic knowledge in meaning construction and comprehension Istvan Kecskes; 13. Corpus pragmatics Karin Aijmer; 14. Prosodic pragmatics in context Jesús Romero-Trillo and Yalda Sadeghi; Part IV. Applications of Context Studies: 15. Language learning and assessment in context Dale Koike and Elisa Gironzetti; 16. Linguistic creativity and humour in context Delia Chiaro; 17. Context in translation and interpreting studies Luis Pérez-González; 18. The role of context in clinical linguistics Louise Cummings; Part V. Advances in multi-modal and technological context-based research: 19. Non-verbal communication and context: multi-modality in interaction Pauline Madella and Tim Wharton; 20. AI, human-robot interaction and natural language processing Ian McLoughlin and Nitin Indurkhya; 21. Social media and computer-mediated communication Francisco Yus.
Jesús Romero-Trillo is Professor of Pragmatics at Autónoma University of Madrid. He is the founder and the Editor-in-Chief of Corpus Pragmatics and since 2008 he has edited seven volumes on pragmatics.
Reviews for The Cambridge Handbook of Language in Context
'Informative, impressively broad in scope, thoughtfully conceived of as a collection, and, most of all, masterly executed by experts in the individual fields, this is a must-read for everyone who cares about the role of context in creating and conveying meaning. As the Editor says, 'context is everywhere'; this collection shows how to approach it, in its different guises and functions, from a variety of perspectives.' Kasia M. Jaszczolt, Professor of Linguistics and Philosophy of Language, University of Cambridge 'This Handbook is an exceptionally significant volume which highlights the importance of context for language processing. Containing 21 well-balanced chapters across five parts, it includes descriptions both of the evolution of theories of context and modern day applications and advances. It is an incredibly worthy addition to any collection of linguistics texts.' Rachael-Anne Knight, Professor of Phonetics, University of Essex
