Perspective and Perspectivation in Discourse: (9 Human Cognitive Processing)

‘Perspective’ and ‘viewpoint’ are widely used in everyday talk as well as in the specialist languages of the social, cognitive, and literary sciences. Taken from the field of visual perception and representation, these concepts have acquired a general meaning and significance, as characteristics of human cognitive processing. Since, however, this field is shared by an increasing body of disciplines, perspective terms have also acquired specific and technical meanings. A striking example is the newly introduced use of ‘perspectivation’ in discourse analysis. This volume on ‘perspective and perspectivation’ — the first of its kind — will help to fill the gap between the common understanding of perspective and the specifics of its structure and dynamics as they have been elaborated in the human sciences, mainly in psychology and linguistics. The focus is on the structure of perspectivity in cognition and language, and the dynamics of setting and taking perspectives in social interaction and in the construction and understanding of texts. Both topics are presented here in an interdisciplinary way by a group of linguists and psychologists.

Table of Contents:
1. Perspective and perspectivation in discourse: An introduction (by Graumann, Carl Friedrich); 2. A. Perspectivity: Structure and functions; 3. Knowledge and perspective setting: What possible consequences on conversation do we have to expect? (by Foppa, Klaus); 4. Explicit and implicit perspectivity (by Graumann, Carl Friedrich); 5. Perspectives, implicitness and recontextualization (by Linell, Per); 6. Quaestio and L-perspectivation (by Stutterheim, Christiane von); 7. Grammaticalization of perspectivity (by Zifonun, Gisela); 8. B. Perspectivation in discourse and interaction; 9. Verbal practices of perspective grounding (by Kallmeyer, Werner); 10. Perspectivity and professional role in verbal interaction (by Keim, Inken); 11. "You can say you to yourself": Establishing perspectives with personal pronouns (by Bredel, Ursula); 12. Strategic uses of self and other perspectives (by Shethar, Alissa); 13. Irony, quotation, and other forms of staged intertextuality: Double or contrastive perspectivation in conversation (by Kotthoff, Helga); 14. C. Perspectivity: Differences and divergences; 15. Social discrimination and aggression: A matter of perspective-specific divergence? (by Otten, Sabine); 16. Perspective-related differences in interpretations of injustice in close relationships (by Mikula, Gerold); 17. Perspectivity in dialogues involving people with cerebral palsy (by Markova, Ivana); 18. Perspective-dependent attributions in court: An investigation into closing speeches with the Linguistic Category Model (by Schmid, Jeannette); 19. D. Perspectivity in reconstructive genres; 20. Point of view, narrative mode and the constitution of narrative texts (by Canisius, Peter); 21. Global and local aspects of perspectivity (by Quasthoff, Uta M.); 22. Perspectivity in reported dialogues: The contextualization of evaluative stances in reconstructing speech (by Gunthner, Susanne); 23. The role of the narrative perspective in the cognitive-cultural context (by Laszlo, Janos); 24. Author index; 25. Subject index

Review :
The volume under review offers a many-sided discussion related to perspectivation of utterances and larger segments of discourse with respect to the position, role and characteristics of the interlocutors and the discourse as well as to the particular situation in which the discourse takes place. Though the issues under investigation are not primarily viewed from the point of the (linguistic) means of expression of the perspectives in language, almost all of the papers included bring some interesting insights into language as used in communication. The most precious feature of the present volume is the due regard paid to empirical analysis, careful selection of data and perspicuous presentation of the material analyzed. In sum: the editors, who are among the pace-setters in the study of perspectivity as a global concept and whose pervasive influences can find expression in this present volume, should be credited with the success of bringing together eighteen cutting-edge studies pertaining to the subject matter of perspective. All these contributions are oriented to a single goal: to deepen our understanding of the very notion of perspective. And they made it. This is a remarkable collection of papers devoted to the dynamics, multidisciplinarity or even transdisciplinarity of perspectivity in human interaction and is of great value to many people. [...] a valuable contribution to understanding of the role of perspective in various types of human interaction, but it also contains specific proposals for analyzing it.