TY - JOUR

T1 - Understanding reading as a form of language-use

T2 - A language game hypothesis

AU - Wallot, Sebastian

PY - 2016/8/1

Y1 - 2016/8/1

N2 - Reading research and research on conversation have followed different paths: While the research program for reading committed itself to a relatively static view of language, where objective text properties serve to elicit specific effects on cognition and behavior of a reader, research on conversation has embraced a language-use perspective, where language is primarily seen as a dynamic, context dependent process. In this essay I contrast these two perspectives, and argue that in order to reach a unified understanding of natural language - be it reading, talking, or conversing - one needs to adopt a language-use perspective. Furthermore, I describe how reading can be seen as a form of language-use, and how the current landscape of research on reading can be re-interpreted in terms of a dynamic, context-sensitive perspective on language. In particular, I propose that the concept of 'language games' serves as a good starting point to conceive reading as a form of language-use, describe how one can derive first concrete hypotheses by re-interpreting reading in terms of language games, and show how they can be readily operationalized using tools from dynamic systems analysis.

AB - Reading research and research on conversation have followed different paths: While the research program for reading committed itself to a relatively static view of language, where objective text properties serve to elicit specific effects on cognition and behavior of a reader, research on conversation has embraced a language-use perspective, where language is primarily seen as a dynamic, context dependent process. In this essay I contrast these two perspectives, and argue that in order to reach a unified understanding of natural language - be it reading, talking, or conversing - one needs to adopt a language-use perspective. Furthermore, I describe how reading can be seen as a form of language-use, and how the current landscape of research on reading can be re-interpreted in terms of a dynamic, context-sensitive perspective on language. In particular, I propose that the concept of 'language games' serves as a good starting point to conceive reading as a form of language-use, describe how one can derive first concrete hypotheses by re-interpreting reading in terms of language games, and show how they can be readily operationalized using tools from dynamic systems analysis.

KW - Psychology

KW - Conversation

KW - Dynamic systems

KW - Language games

KW - Language-use

KW - Reading

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84938150600&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.newideapsych.2015.07.006

DO - 10.1016/j.newideapsych.2015.07.006

M3 - Journal articles

AN - SCOPUS:84938150600

VL - 42

SP - 21

EP - 28

JO - New Ideas in Psychology

JF - New Ideas in Psychology

SN - 0732-118X

ER -