How Do You Get A Giraffe Into A Refrigerator?
Else_HP-TRAXLER_cH018.qxd
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Chapter 18
Discourse Comprehension
Rolf A. Zwaan and David N. Rapp
1.
INTRODUCTION
Consider the following children’s riddle1 (and please do not read ahead until coming up with an answer):
• How do you get an elephant into a refrigerator?
The answer to the riddle, quite simply, is you open the fridge, put the elephant inside, and close the door. This solved, consider another riddle:
• How do you get a giraffe into a refrigerator?
Readers might be tempted to reuse the previous answer for this second riddle, but this turns out to be too simple. The correct answer is you open the fridge, take out the elephant, put the giraffe inside, and close the door. Now, …show more content…
Discourse genres can be categorized as a function of discourse topic, formality, delivery system, and author or speaker goals and intentions. Three of the most well-studied genres include narrative, expository, and procedural discourse. Other categorizations have been proposed as well for texts and genre subsets (e.g., Meyer & Freedle, 1984).
Narratives have often been associated with fiction, although they can include nonfictional accounts (e.g., historical narratives such as John Adams by David McCollough).
What differentiates narratives from other genres is that they typically describe a series of events involving a protagonist attempting to overcome obstacles and accomplish a goal
(e.g., Mandler & Johnson, 1977; Propp, 1968; Stein & Glenn, 1979; Trabasso & Sperry,
1985; van den Broek, 1988). Narratives are often defined by the causal structure of their events (e.g., Trabasso & van den Broek, 1985; van den Broek, 1990); they contain sequences of events that lead, by necessity and sufficiency, to later events and can be traced back, causally, to early sequences in the plot. Causal structures in narratives are, in …show more content…
DISCOURSE COMPREHENSION
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737
2003; Guzzetti, Snyder, Glass, & Gamas, 1993; Kendeou & van den Broek, 2005).
Students attempt to understand material in line with these faulty beliefs, rather than spontaneously engaging in processes of conceptual change to revise their beliefs and mental models (DiSessa, 2002; Posner, Strike, Hewson, & Gertzog, 1982; Vosniadou, 2002;
Vosniadou & Brewer, 1994). Thus, background knowledge from LTM serves as the scaffold for newly encountered information, regardless of the validity of that knowledge.
5.
SITUATION MODELS
The most basic purpose of discourse is to convey information about a state of affairs in the real or a fictional world. Accordingly, the comprehender’s usual goal is to achieve an understanding of the described situations. As we have suggested, the comprehender relies on linguistic cues in the discourse and his/her prior knowledge to achieve understanding (McNamara & Kintsch, 1996). Integration of information from the discourse and the comprehender’s knowledge and cognitive activities is necessary for successful comprehension (as well as for forming a representation of the experience that could
10/12/2006
4:13 PM
Page 725
725
Chapter 18
Discourse Comprehension
Rolf A. Zwaan and David N. Rapp
1.
INTRODUCTION
Consider the following children’s riddle1 (and please do not read ahead until coming up with an answer):
• How do you get an elephant into a refrigerator?
The answer to the riddle, quite simply, is you open the fridge, put the elephant inside, and close the door. This solved, consider another riddle:
• How do you get a giraffe into a refrigerator?
Readers might be tempted to reuse the previous answer for this second riddle, but this turns out to be too simple. The correct answer is you open the fridge, take out the elephant, put the giraffe inside, and close the door. Now, …show more content…
Discourse genres can be categorized as a function of discourse topic, formality, delivery system, and author or speaker goals and intentions. Three of the most well-studied genres include narrative, expository, and procedural discourse. Other categorizations have been proposed as well for texts and genre subsets (e.g., Meyer & Freedle, 1984).
Narratives have often been associated with fiction, although they can include nonfictional accounts (e.g., historical narratives such as John Adams by David McCollough).
What differentiates narratives from other genres is that they typically describe a series of events involving a protagonist attempting to overcome obstacles and accomplish a goal
(e.g., Mandler & Johnson, 1977; Propp, 1968; Stein & Glenn, 1979; Trabasso & Sperry,
1985; van den Broek, 1988). Narratives are often defined by the causal structure of their events (e.g., Trabasso & van den Broek, 1985; van den Broek, 1990); they contain sequences of events that lead, by necessity and sufficiency, to later events and can be traced back, causally, to early sequences in the plot. Causal structures in narratives are, in …show more content…
DISCOURSE COMPREHENSION
Page 737
737
2003; Guzzetti, Snyder, Glass, & Gamas, 1993; Kendeou & van den Broek, 2005).
Students attempt to understand material in line with these faulty beliefs, rather than spontaneously engaging in processes of conceptual change to revise their beliefs and mental models (DiSessa, 2002; Posner, Strike, Hewson, & Gertzog, 1982; Vosniadou, 2002;
Vosniadou & Brewer, 1994). Thus, background knowledge from LTM serves as the scaffold for newly encountered information, regardless of the validity of that knowledge.
5.
SITUATION MODELS
The most basic purpose of discourse is to convey information about a state of affairs in the real or a fictional world. Accordingly, the comprehender’s usual goal is to achieve an understanding of the described situations. As we have suggested, the comprehender relies on linguistic cues in the discourse and his/her prior knowledge to achieve understanding (McNamara & Kintsch, 1996). Integration of information from the discourse and the comprehender’s knowledge and cognitive activities is necessary for successful comprehension (as well as for forming a representation of the experience that could