Linell
"

Per Linell

From Wikipedia:

“Recontextualisation is a process that extracts text, signs or meaning from its original context (decontextualisation) in order to introduce it into another context. Since the meaning of texts and signs depend on their context, recontextualisation implies a change of meaning, and often of the communicative purpose too. The Linguist Per Linell defines recontextualisation as:

the dynamic transfer-and-transformation of something from one discourse/text-in-context ... to another. ^[1]

Linell distinguishes between recontextualisation at three different levels:

• intratextual: recontextualisation within the same text, discourse or conversation. Intratextual recontextualisation plays an important part in most discourse in so far as it refers to what have been said before, or anticipates what is to be said. In conversation, for instance, the one part usually infuses what the other part just - or earlier - has said in a new context thus adding new meaning to it. Such turns of decontextualisation and recontextualisation combined with metadiscursive regulation are crucial for the continual unfolding of texts, discourses and conversations.^[2]
• intertextual: recontextualisation relations to specific texts, discourses or conversations. It is an important aspect of texts that they explicitly or implicitly fetch elements from other texts. The importance of this becomes clear when it is realised the meaning of a word is based on its meaning in other contexts; it could be an encyclopaedia, but more often its meaning stems from contexts in which it is used. See: intertextuality
• interdiscursive: recontextualisation between types of discourse, such as genres. In Fairclough, chains of genres is closely connected to interdiscursive recontextualisation. Chains of genres denotes how genres depend on each others discursive material, e.g. the relation between interviews, transcription of interviews and the analysis of interviews. However, interdiscursive recontextualisation is also abundant between large interdiscursive entities or formation and is part of society's discursive workshare. An example is the import of results from statistic theory into social science with the purpose of testing quantitative analyses. See: interdiscourse

Though recontextualisation often is used within linguistics, it also has interdisciplinary applications. Particularly, in Basil Bernstein's concept of the pedagogic device that consists of three fields: the fields of production, recontextualisation and reproduction. The field of reproduction is the field of schooling institutions. The field of production is the field, where knowledge is produced (often universities). The field of recontextualisation mediates between these two fields. The recontextualisation field "is composed of two sub-fields; namely, the official recontextualising field (ORF) and the pedagogic recontextualising field (PRF). The ORF consists of 'specialized departments and sub-agencies of the State and local educational authorities'. The PRF consists of university departments of education, their research as well as specialised educational media”

From Wikipedia – Intertextuality:

“Kristeva’s coinage of “intertextuality” represents an attempt to synthesize Ferdinand de Saussure’s semiotics—his study of how signs derive their meaning within the structure of a text—with Bakhtin’s dialogism—his examination of the multiple meanings, or “heteroglossia”, in each text (especially novels) and in each word.^[2] For Kristeva,^[3] “the notion of intertextuality replaces the notion of intersubjectivity” when we realize that meaning is not transferred directly from writer to reader but instead is mediated through, or filtered by, “codes” imparted to the writer and reader by other texts. For example, when we read James Joyce’s Ulysses we decode it as a modernist literary experiment, or as a response to the epic tradition, or as part of some other conversation, or as part of all of these conversations at once. This intertextual view of literature, as shown by Roland Barthes, supports the concept that the meaning of a text does not reside in the text, but is produced by the reader in relation not only to the text in question, but also the complex network of texts invoked in the reading process.”

143

Discourse field – moving into discourse of professions

phenomena:

a. intraprofessional

b. interprofessional (representatives at conferences/ public debates)

c. professional – when professionals meet and  speak with lay people: doctor consultants etc.

Discourse – wide sense: “covering talkin-

interaction, monological speech, written texts, etc. Note especially that

professional or institutional discourse, including the interactions with

clients, often uses (or results in) written texts”

TEXT – “will be concerned with discourse across

boundaries between discourse communities” (deals with  “a” and “b”)

144

“Any discourse or text is embedded in a matrix of contexts made up from

an array of different contextual resources: prior discourse, concrete physical

environments, people (and assumptions about people) with their interpersonal

relations, various kinds of background knowledge, situation definitions

(frames), models of topics talked about, etc. (Linell 1998).”

“Contextual resources are mobilized, constructed, negotiated, modified and

used in all kinds of communication; some are exploited on an utterance-toutterance

basis, whereas others carry relevance for much longer periods  of time. A t~xt or discourse is therefore not merely made up of a sequence

of utterances; there are concomitant contexts supporting the coherence

and continuity of the discourse and its interpretability.

contexts – characteristically ambiguous nature

“Contexts have a characteristically ambiguous nature; they are partly

outside of the discourse or text, but at the same time the discourses and

their relevant contexts constitute each other. All this means that discourses

and their contexts J>resuppose and imply each other, and that a piece of

discourse cannot be taken out of a given matrix of contexts without

changing its interpretations, or its potential of being interpreted in specific

ways.”

145

Recontextualization – dynamic transfer and  transformation

“Reoontextualization

involves the extrication of some part or aspect from a text or dismurse, or

from a genre of texts or discourses, and the fitting of this part or aspect into

another context,”

“recontextua1ization

usually amounts to reframing. Aspects of discourse which can be recontextualized

include hnguistic expressions, concepts and propositions, 'facts',

arguments and lines of argumentation. stories, assessments, values· and

ideologies, knowledge and theoretical cons r in things and

ways of acting towards them, ways of thinking, and ways of saying things.

‘such as simplification,

condensation, elaboration and refocusing <Bernstein 1990). At the same

time, recontextualization is never a pure transfer of a fixed meaning’

‘It

involves transformatiOns of meanings and meaning potentials in ways

that are usually quite complex and so far not very well understood.’

recontextualizations – as “co-constitutive of the sense-making practices; selected parts of discourses

and their meanings in the prior, "quoted" d1scourse-m-context are used

as resources in creating ne%. meaning in the 'quoting' text and its communicative

context.” For example, changes in meaning often involve reversals

of figure-ground relations; what is central in one context may become

peripheral in the other, and vice versa.”

“Recontextualization' may seem to presuppose a more basic concept,

namely 'contextualization' (a term used by, e.g., Gumperz 1982; Auer

1995; Bernstein 1990, and others). Originally, the latter notion was based

on the idea of context-free linguistic items (such as words and grammatical

constructions, with their linguistically defined 'content'), which were

thought to become 'contextualized' when they appear in situated use and

are assigned context-specific interpretations.” – ok – so in past theories words were merely contextualized when in place – Were the Jews whipped?

I think that sucks.

“But at the message level, i.e.,

when communication is taken to be primary rather than entirely parasitic

on abstract language, recontextualization is in fact a more appropriate

concept than contextualization; no linguistic message, no thought or

intention, exists first without a context, and only then becomes 'contextualized'.”

“Recontextualization” IN ALL communcations – not just text.

146

“Recontextualizations can .occur

at all levels discourse· intratextual, intertextual, and interdiscursive.”

intertextual – within texts – shifts

Very interesting examples: “For example, a co-conversationalist may locally

recontextualize aspects of somebody's prior contribution by providing a

response or a follow-up question that implies a new perspective on the

topic or a redefinition of the communicative project. Other intratextual

recontextualizations occur at a 'middle-range' level; conversational episodes

or textual paragraphs are usually not entirely unanchored in available

contexts, and some involve the recontextualization of an element from

a previous episode or context space to the new one.”

move from sleeping to depression in that instance - recontextualization

147

turn and collaboration

“Later, the ensuing

talk (Coupland and Coupland, Extract 5) involves the doctor and the

daughter, at another level, trying to reperspectivize the whole talk about

P's present situation (how she copes with it) from a focus on problems

and troubles to more of a 'bright side' evaluation.”

Intertextual – across  texts

“we can then distinguish between, on the one hand, \-t1 \• .....,. h

intertextual phenomena, relating different specific texts, discourses and

conversations, each anhored in its specific contexts, and, on the other

hand, interdiscursive phenomena, occurring at more abstract and global

levels and concerning relations between discourse types (communicative

activity types, genres, etc”

This is interesting:

“Fairclough seems to presuppose a

more Foucauldian notion of 'discourse'. A 'discourse' is then, roughly,

all that has been (or could be) said about some (widely defined) topic,

in some particular culture-specific ways, e.g., within a specific genre,

tradition, profession, time period, or the like.)”

148

“Recontexualizations rna involve actual wordin s ex licitl ex ressed

meanm s or somet m onl implicit or implied in the original text or~

gen_g. It may be airly circumscnbed an 'concrete', or it may involve

general attitudes, ways of thinking or arguing, ways of laying out or

understanding patterns of discourse.

There are actual ('direct') verbal quotes as well as general and rather

vague influences. In no case are we faced with a true transfer of something;

it is never the propagation of a fixed message across representational

instances. Rather. it is a complex transformation, involving shifts of

meaning and new perspectives, the accentuation of some semantic aspects

and the attenuation or total ehmmat10n of others.”

issues with quotations of verbal contexts:

“In

general, although formal aspects of linguistic expressions ma.y be retained

in the transformation process (but even this cannot be true of all aspects

of oral quoting, except perhaps if a physical copy, e.g., a technical

recording, is being used), semantic aspects and communicative values are

changed, due to the change of contexts.”

semantics  changed due to contexts (reminding me of Plato’s warnings)

“We are

faced with the exploitations of relations between both texts/discourses

('intertextuality') and contexts ('intercontextuality').”

Intertextual/ interdiscursive – lay and professional interactions

“When 'cases' travel within bureaucracies, often

involving many kinds of experts, we can observe, in the chains of professional

discourses and communicative activities, that labellings, problem

definitions, and biographical fragments of people are being recontextualized

(e.g., Aronsson 1991). This process involves the recycling of givens as well

as the reinterpreting of new meanings”

Makes me think of SCA kids – way they were able to present

149

“situations, or texts, in which

(in some sense) the 'same' mntent, e ~, the same 'case', is treated. Tlte

other method amounts to looking at the product of various kinds of

recontextualizations in the multivoiced mix within single texts.”

Cicourel – “juvenile delinquent”

“A classical account of this kind of phenomenon is

Cicourel's (l9§a) study of how 'cases' involving juvenile delinquents

were built and rebuilt through numerous recontextualizing practices. In

Cicourel's terms, 'the "delin uent" is an emergent product, transformed

over time according to a sequence o encounters, ora and written reports,

prospective readings, retrospective readings of 'what happened' and the

practical circumstances of 'settling' matters in everyday agency business'”

Reframing of suspects’ stories

“One feature

of such recontextualizations is that of forcing disambiguating distinctions

onto matters which may have been vague in the lay world.”

How words become action

Polyvocality:

“But the individual

texts and discourses involved will themselves embody features of

previous texts and discourses, as well as general influences from other

communicative genres and communication sttuations. We can observe a

mixing, blending, or blurring of different voices and interests (professional

and/or lay) in the discourse of particular categories of professionals, in

specific genres of discourse or within particular texts. Elements from

different discourses and discourse types often partly merge, partly stay on

to compete with each other. This is the phenomenon which Bakhtin

termed  polyvocality”

Mixing of voices

151

Hybridization of genres:

“For example, Candlin and Maley

(1997) describe how mediation as a form of dispute resolution in, e.g.,

divorce and custody matters, in Australia and other countries, is a mixed

(hybrid) genre with links to professional practices in such different domains

as law, counselling, and therapy.”

“One specific theme relates to the issue of recurrent

recontextualizations and the concomitant reinterpretations amongst and

between these communities”

Discrimination of voices

“But professionals, journalists, and others also have important

gate-keeping positions in these complex processes. They have many

opportunities to select, endorse and/or re-perspectivize suitable parts and

aspects (i.e., suitable for particular purposes), edit these parts in new ways

and combinations, subdue or silence voices that have been heard earlier,

or could have been heard at various stages. Again this is a topic for several

contributions to this issue.”

Intertextual chains involve opportunities for manipulation and discrimination

Really fascinating.

1. Age – recontextualized

2. health care – risk “At the same time, it shows the health care professional

(doctor or nurse) trying, in his or her clinical practice, to find a position

between the discourse and knowledge of scientific medicine and the

discourse and experiences of the individual patients.”

3. psychotherapists written reports “In other words, recontextualizations have not only a

retrospective side, being selective transformations of prior discourse, but

also a prospective aspect, addressing particular audiences and thereby

partly anticipating their (re)interpretations (and recontextualizations).”

4. Potential child abuse – competing definitions of professional terms“When information is recontextualized from one professional's

perspective to another's, some important figure-ground relations

are bound to get reversed. Sarangi also points to a tension between

interests of acquiring vs. withholding information, which is tied to issues

of defending and demarcating professional responsibilities.”

5. Media discourse “The media discourse develops

into a train of communicative events, in which media focus largely on

the behavior of other media. When the discourse has shifted from reporting

about the disaster to discussing the reporting practices by the (other)

media, we have witnessed a major recontextualization of the matters talked

about.”