Episodic Models in Discourse Processing

Chapter

5

Episodic Models in Discourse Processing
Teun A. van DIN

INTRODUCTION

In this chapter it is shown that models play an important role in both oral and written discourse processing. Although the term model has several other meanings, it will here exclusively be used to denote a specific kind of knowledge structure in memory. 1 In particular, the notion of model is intended here to account for the role of personal knowledge people have about real or imagined situations in the process of discourse production and understanding. In order to distinguish this notion from other uses of the term model, we speak of situational models. Such situational models are assumed to be representations of personal experiences and therefore are part of episodic memory. Emepoirsytdhcneoflgtrm ywhepol store particular information about each event or action—including verbal acts such as discourses—they have processed in short term memory. Since situational models are assumed to reside in episodic memory we also sometimes call them episodic models. Expressions in natural language in general, and discourse in particular, may be used to refer to, or denote, something "in the world" or in some sociocultural context. Discourse is about objects or people, about their properties and relations, about events or actions, or about complex episodes of these, that is, about some fragment of the world which we call a situation. A model, then, is the cognitive counterpart of such a situation: it is what people "have in mind" when they observe, participate in, or hear or read about such a situation. Thus, a model incorpoCOMPREHENDING ORAL AND WRITTEN LANGUAGE Copyright © 1987 by Academic Press, Inc. All rights of reproduction in any form reserved.

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rates the personal knowledge people have about such a situation, and this knowledge has been accumulated during previous experiences with such a situation. Each new piece of information about that

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