Thematics
Interdisciplinary Studies
Editors
Themes play a central role in our everyday communication: we have to know what a text is about in order to understand it. Intended meaning cannot be understood without some knowledge of the underlying theme. This book helps to define the concept of ‘themes’ in texts and how they are structured in language use.
Much of the literature on Thematics is scattered over different disciplines (literature, psychology, linguistics, cognitive science), which this detailed collection pulls together in one coherent overview. The result is a new landmark for the study and understanding of themes in their everyday manifestation.
Much of the literature on Thematics is scattered over different disciplines (literature, psychology, linguistics, cognitive science), which this detailed collection pulls together in one coherent overview. The result is a new landmark for the study and understanding of themes in their everyday manifestation.
[Converging Evidence in Language and Communication Research, 3] 2002. x, 448 pp.
Publishing status: Available
© John Benjamins Publishing Company
Table of Contents
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Preface | p. ix
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IntroductionMax M. Louwerse and Willie van Peer | pp. 1–13
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Part I. Structure and processing
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Section 1. Theoretical approaches
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1. Psychological and computational research on theme comprehensionArthur C. Graesser, Victoria J. Pomeroy and Scotty D. Craig | pp. 19–34
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2. Situation models and themesRolf A. Zwaan, Gabriel A. Radvansky and Shannon Whitten | pp. 35–53
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3. Conditions of updating during readingHerre van Oostendorp, José Otero and Juan Miguel Campanario | pp. 55–76
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Section 2. Experimental and corpus linguistic approaches
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4. Evaluation devices as a coordinating mechanism for story pointsYeshayahu Shen | pp. 77–90
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5. Responding to style: Cohesion, foregrounding and thematic interpretationCatherine Emmott | pp. 91–117
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6. The definite article the as a cue to map thematic informationMorton Ann Gernsbacher and Rachel Robertson | pp. 119–136
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7. Thematic management in KoreanMyung-Hee Kim | pp. 137–156
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Section 3. Computational approaches
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8. On the notions of theme and topic in psychological process models of text comprehensionWalter Kintsch | pp. 157–170
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9. Themes and hierarchical structure of written textsÉlisabeth Le | pp. 171–187
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10. Computational retrieval of themesMax M. Louwerse | pp. 189–212
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Part II. Contents and contexts
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Section 1. Theoretical approaches
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11. Thematics todayWerner Sollors | pp. 217–235
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12. Seven trends in recent thematics and a case studyBo Pettersson | pp. 237–252
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13. Where do literary themes come from?Willie van Peer | pp. 253–263
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14. Motives and motifs in visual thematicsGeorges Roque | pp. 265–282
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Section 2. Interpretive approaches
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15. Masking one’s themes: Irony and the politics of indirectnessRachel Giora | pp. 283–300
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16. Themes of nationMette Hjort | pp. 301–320
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17. Tracking a theme: War in contemporary German literatureHorst S. Daemmrich | pp. 321–339
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18. Why themes matter: Literary knowledge and the thematic example of moneyPhillipp Wolf | pp. 341–352
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Section 3. Computational approaches
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19. Moving targets: The making and molding of a themeRobert Hogenraad | pp. 353–376
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20. Quantitative hermeneutics: Inferring the meaning of narratives from trends in their contentColin Martindale and Alan N. West | pp. 377–395
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21. Prototype effect vs. rarity effect in literary stylePaul A. Fortier | pp. 397–405
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22. Parsing for the theme: A computer based approachJan Christoph Meister | pp. 407–431
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Name index | pp. 433–442
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Subject index | pp. 443–448
“"Thematics: Interdisciplinary Studies", edited by Max Louwerse and Willie van Peer, is obviously an essential book for academics from various disciplines concerned by thematics. The book is well balanced between theoretical and practical aspects. It also demonstrates clearly the importance of an interdisciplinary point of view to the study and analysis of thematics. Furthermore, it presents a good overview of the 'classical' perspective to the problem of thematics. It allows the reader to understand the importance and the complexity of the subject. Researchers concerned by the computational approach to thematic analysis will find in the section "Computational Approaches" very interesting methods of analysis endorsed by relevant experiments.”
Dominic Forest, in Linguist List Vol. 14-2171
Cited by (9)
Cited by nine other publications
Zarhy-Levo, Yael
2020. On Playwright Canonization. Poetics Today 41:4 ► pp. 619 ff. 
Baym, Geoffrey
2019. ‘Think of Him as The President’: Tabloid Trump and the Political Imaginary, 1980–1999. Journal of Communication 69:4 ► pp. 396 ff.
Renkema, Jan & Christoph Schubert
Scarinzi, Alfonsina
2007. Das literarische Thema in der Wissensstruktur des Lesers: Wege und Umwege zu einer kognitiven Rezeptionstheorie des literarischen Themas. Orbis Litterarum 62:6 ► pp. 441 ff.
Scarinzi, Alfonsina
2014. Thematics, oder Warum ein Thema der Literatur überlieferungsfähig und kulturübergreifend wird. Orbis Litterarum 69:1 ► pp. 1 ff.
Scarinzi, Alfonsina
2016. Going Cognitivein der Themenforschung. Orbis Litterarum 71:3 ► pp. 189 ff.
van Peer, Willie & Aikaterini Nousi
2007. What Reading Does to Readers: Stereotypes, Foregrounding and Language Learning. In Literature and Stylistics for Language Learners, ► pp. 181 ff.
Louwerse, Max & Don Kuiken
2004. The Effects of Personal Involvement in Narrative Discourse. Discourse Processes 38:2 ► pp. 169 ff.
[no author supplied]
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Subjects
Main BIC Subject
CF: Linguistics
Main BISAC Subject
LAN009000: LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Linguistics / General