Thematics

Interdisciplinary Studies

Editors

Max M. Louwerse

| University of Memphis

Willie van Peer

| University of Munich

Hardbound – Available

ISBN 9789027238887 (Eur) | EUR 135.00

ISBN 9781588111074 (USA) | USD 203.00

Paperback – Available

ISBN 9789027238894 (Eur) | EUR 58.00

ISBN 9781588112828 (USA) | USD 87.00

e-Book –

ISBN 9789027297785 | EUR 135.00/58.00*
| USD 203.00/87.00*

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.

[Converging Evidence in Language and Communication Research, 3] 2002. x, 448 pp.

Publishing status: Available

https://doi.org/10.1075/celcr.3

Table of Contents

Preface	ix
Introduction Max M. Louwerse and Willie van Peer	1–13
Part I. Structure and processing	15–18
Section 1. Theoretical approaches
1. Psychological and computational research on theme comprehension Arthur C. Graesser, Victoria J. Pomeroy and Scotty D. Craig	19–34
2. Situation models and themes Rolf A. Zwaan, Gabriel A. Radvansky and Shannon Whitten	35–53
3. Conditions of updating during reading Herre van Oostendorp, José Otero and Juan Miguel Campanario	55–76
Section 2. Experimental and corpus linguistic approaches
4. Evaluation devices as a coordinating mechanism for story points Yeshayahu Shen	77–90
5. Responding to style: Cohesion, foregrounding and thematic interpretation Catherine Emmott	91–117
6. The definite article the as a cue to map thematic information Morton Ann Gernsbacher and Rachel Robertson	119–136
7. Thematic management in Korean Myung-Hee Kim	137–156
Section 3. Computational approaches
8. On the notions of theme and topic in psychological process models of text comprehension Walter Kintsch	157–170
9. Themes and hierarchical structure of written texts Elisabeth Le	171–187
10. Computational retrieval of themes Max M. Louwerse	189–212
Part II. Contents and contexts	213–216
Section 1. Theoretical approaches
11. Thematics today Werner Sollors	217–235
12. Seven trends in recent thematics and a case study Bo Pettersson	237–252
13. Where do literary themes come from? Willie van Peer	253–263
14. Motives and motifs in visual thematics Georges Roque	265–282
Section 2. Interpretive approaches
15. Masking one’s themes: Irony and the politics of indirectness Rachel Giora	283–300
16. Themes of nation Mette Hjort	301–320
17. Tracking a theme: War in contemporary German literature Horst S. Daemmrich	321–339
18. Why themes matter: Literary knowledge and the thematic example of money Phillipp Wolf	341–352
Section 3. Computational approaches
19. Moving targets: The making and molding of a theme Robert Hogenraad	353–376
20. Quantitative hermeneutics: Inferring the meaning of narratives from trends in their content Colin Martindale and Alan N. West	377–395
21. Prototype effect vs. rarity effect in literary style Paul A. Fortier	397–405
22. Parsing for the theme: A computer based approach Jan Christoph Meister	407–431
Name index	433–442
Subject index	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

Cited by other publications

No author info given

2017. In The Idea of a Text and the Nature of Textual Meaning [FILLM Studies in Languages and Literatures, 7],

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.

Louwerse, Max & Don Kuiken

2004. The Effects of Personal Involvement in Narrative Discourse. Discourse Processes 38:2 ► pp. 169 ff.

Renkema, Jan & Christoph Schubert

2018. In Introduction to Discourse Studies,

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.

van Peer, Willie & Aikaterini Nousi

2007. In Literature and Stylistics for Language Learners, ► pp. 181 ff.

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 29 december 2019. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Subjects

Linguistics

Psycholinguistics

Discourse studies

Pragmatics

BIC Subject: CF – Linguistics

BISAC Subject: LAN009000 – LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Linguistics / General

U.S. Library of Congress Control Number: 2001056472