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The Functional Perspective on Language and Discourse: Applications and implications
Edited by María de los Ángeles Gómez González, Francisco José Ruiz de Mendoza Ibáñez, Francisco Gonzálvez-García and Angela Downing
[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 247] 2014
► pp. 37–56

A method of analysing recontextualisation in the communication of science

| Loughborough University, UK

Although communication is a creative process, this does not mean that all discourse is entirely novel. On the contrary, speakers and writers often draw upon material encountered within previous discourse-situations, and reuse it in their current discourse-environment. This process, whereby content that has been given expression in one context is subsequently lifted into a different context, is known as recontextualisation. Furthermore, such recontextualisation is frequently accompanied by the recasting or reexpression of the text itself, a process which may be termed resemiotisation. The present chapter proposes a broadly-based, three-tier method for the systematic analysis of recontextualisation and of the accompanying resemiotisation, and applies it to the practical study of communication in science education.

Published online: 16 May 2014
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https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.247.03con
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