Pilar Alonso is Associate Professor of English in the Department of Filología Inglesa at the Universidad de Salamanca, Spain. She has wide experience in teaching semantics, and discourse analysis-related subjects both at undergraduate and graduate levels. She is the author of A Multi-dimensional Approach to Discourse Coherence. From Standardness to Creativity (Peter Lang, 2014. Series: Linguistic Insights.Vol. 180) and has written numerous articles and co-edited books on cognitive and discourse semantics, literary discourse analysis, models of discourse analysis and discourse analysis-based methods of language teaching and research.
This book presents a comprehensive study of the subject of text and discourse coherence, integrat... more This book presents a comprehensive study of the subject of text and discourse coherence, integrating some of the traditional trends of discourse analysis and creating new channels of research which help to understand the notion further. Based on the work of leading theoreticians and on the actual consideration of authentic linguistic material, the book identifies the structural and cognitive aspects of standard discourse coherence and, as a variation from other mainstream approaches, it also explores the more subjective and culturally-bound conceptual aspects of coherence construction in creative modes of discourse. To achieve these aims, the study incorporates concepts and analytical practices from cognitive linguistic theories of conceptualisation; additionally, it draws from theories of communication to address the idiosyncratic and socio-cultural aspects which affect the formation of coherent discourse patterns. The intention is to broaden the perspective of the subject and to focus on its complexity, as well as to stress the need to conceive of discourse coherence as a multi-dimensional phenomenon consisting of numerous procedural components.
Actas Del Xxiv Congreso Internacional De Aesla Recurso Electronico Aprendizaje De Lenguas Uso Del Lenguaje Y Modelacion Cognitiva Perspectivas Aplicadas Entre Disciplinas 2007 Isbn 978 84 611 6897 2, 2007
Xvi Congreso De La Asociacion Espanola De Estudios Anglo Norteamericanos Valladolid 14 15 Y 16 De Diciembre De 1992 1994 Isbn 84 7762 443 7 Pags 319 324, 1994
Miscelanea a Journal of English and American Studies, 1996
This paper explores the role of intersentential connectives in complex narrative discourse so as ... more This paper explores the role of intersentential connectives in complex narrative discourse so as to investigate the applicability of recent findings in the literature to more complex data than that usually found in theoretical studies of the phenomenon. For this purpose the function of connectives in Katherine Mansfield's short story "The Garden Party" will be analysed, concentrating mainly on the intersentential connectives AND and BUT which are unusually salient and recurrent throughout the text. The analysis shows that both connectives provide a means of attaining local and global cohesion, and, most important, they efficiently serve as explicit signals for the development and construction of all participants' mental representations of the story.
espanolEste articulo muestra como el enfoque tradicional en la ensenanza de los verbos modales in... more espanolEste articulo muestra como el enfoque tradicional en la ensenanza de los verbos modales ingleses en el aula de EFL emplea un criterio de clasificacion doble (gramatico y semantico) que no responde al verdadero uso de los verbos modales en el discurso autentico y ademas causa problemas en el proceso de aprendizaje. Se argumenta que valores modales como obligacion, permiso, certeza, etc. no son exclusivamente funciones del contenido semantico sino que tambien son exponentes de la fuerza pragmatica ilocutiva de los verbos modales, la cual solo puede apreciarse al considerar enunciados autenticos. A traves del analisis de los datos obtenidos, el articulo demuestra que el contexto oracional que normalmente acompana a la presentacion de los verbos modales es insuficiente para alcanzar una interpretacion suficientemente estable de su significado, incluso para los hablantes nativos de ingles, y propugna el estudio de estos verbos en un contexto discursivo como recurso para desambigua...
This book presents a comprehensive study of the subject of text and discourse coherence, integrat... more This book presents a comprehensive study of the subject of text and discourse coherence, integrating some of the traditional trends of discourse analysis and creating new channels of research which help to understand the notion further. Based on the work of leading theoreticians and on the actual consideration of authentic linguistic material, the book identifies the structural and cognitive aspects of standard discourse coherence and, as a variation from other mainstream approaches, it also explores the more subjective and culturally-bound conceptual aspects of coherence construction in creative modes of discourse. To achieve these aims, the study incorporates concepts and analytical practices from cognitive linguistic theories of conceptualisation; additionally, it draws from theories of communication to address the idiosyncratic and socio-cultural aspects which affect the formation of coherent discourse patterns. The intention is to broaden the perspective of the subject and to focus on its complexity, as well as to stress the need to conceive of discourse coherence as a multi-dimensional phenomenon consisting of numerous procedural components.
Actas Del Xxiv Congreso Internacional De Aesla Recurso Electronico Aprendizaje De Lenguas Uso Del Lenguaje Y Modelacion Cognitiva Perspectivas Aplicadas Entre Disciplinas 2007 Isbn 978 84 611 6897 2, 2007
Xvi Congreso De La Asociacion Espanola De Estudios Anglo Norteamericanos Valladolid 14 15 Y 16 De Diciembre De 1992 1994 Isbn 84 7762 443 7 Pags 319 324, 1994
Miscelanea a Journal of English and American Studies, 1996
This paper explores the role of intersentential connectives in complex narrative discourse so as ... more This paper explores the role of intersentential connectives in complex narrative discourse so as to investigate the applicability of recent findings in the literature to more complex data than that usually found in theoretical studies of the phenomenon. For this purpose the function of connectives in Katherine Mansfield's short story "The Garden Party" will be analysed, concentrating mainly on the intersentential connectives AND and BUT which are unusually salient and recurrent throughout the text. The analysis shows that both connectives provide a means of attaining local and global cohesion, and, most important, they efficiently serve as explicit signals for the development and construction of all participants' mental representations of the story.
espanolEste articulo muestra como el enfoque tradicional en la ensenanza de los verbos modales in... more espanolEste articulo muestra como el enfoque tradicional en la ensenanza de los verbos modales ingleses en el aula de EFL emplea un criterio de clasificacion doble (gramatico y semantico) que no responde al verdadero uso de los verbos modales en el discurso autentico y ademas causa problemas en el proceso de aprendizaje. Se argumenta que valores modales como obligacion, permiso, certeza, etc. no son exclusivamente funciones del contenido semantico sino que tambien son exponentes de la fuerza pragmatica ilocutiva de los verbos modales, la cual solo puede apreciarse al considerar enunciados autenticos. A traves del analisis de los datos obtenidos, el articulo demuestra que el contexto oracional que normalmente acompana a la presentacion de los verbos modales es insuficiente para alcanzar una interpretacion suficientemente estable de su significado, incluso para los hablantes nativos de ingles, y propugna el estudio de estos verbos en un contexto discursivo como recurso para desambigua...
“I Seminario de Lengua y Lingüística Inglesas: Métodos de Enseñanza e Investigación.” Universidad de Salamanca., 1997
This paper aims to provide a global overview of how literary text analysis operates within the co... more This paper aims to provide a global overview of how literary text analysis operates within the communicative theoretical frame of discourse studies. It intends to demonstrate that the capacity of discourse analysis to integrate different constituents and approaches proves a highly efficient methodological tool both in teaching and research. For this purpose, the general characteristics common to all texts are discussed, specifying the dimension that they tend to acquire in the literary type. It claims that taking into consideration the communicative nature of texts is one of the most important contributions discourse studies have made to literary studies, one that should be added to other widely acknowledged aesthetic or creative functions.
“Modelos de análisis discursivo” (Models of Discourse Analysis) Conference at the Universidad de Salamanca, 2000
This paper is about the significance of numbers in discourse interpretation, and most specificall... more This paper is about the significance of numbers in discourse interpretation, and most specifically in literary discourse analysis. It argues that the study of recurrence, understood as the re-occurrence of a term or structure in a given textual unit, offers an effective means of identifying texture patterns within large narrative texts and contributes to easing the process of researching the literary text as a cohesive and coherent whole, regardless of its extension. The following pages illustrate this point through the analysis of three literary pieces: Katherine Mansfield’s “The Man Without a Temperament”, Muriel Spark’s The Ballad of Peckham Rye, and John Updike’s “The Wallet”. The three works provide examples of lexical, grammatical, semantic, and cognitive types of recurrence and their macrostructural scope.
“Isomorphism of knowledge Scientific projections on 20th and 21st century Literature” Conference at the University of Bucharest, 2019
Through the analysis of examples taken from a selection of works by Malcolm Bradbury, Saul Bellow... more Through the analysis of examples taken from a selection of works by Malcolm Bradbury, Saul Bellow, Norman Mailer, Bernard Malamud, John Updike, and E.E. Cummings, this essay explores the mental processes underlying the creation of literary discourse production from a cognitive linguistic perspective. It investigates how cases of metaphorical meaning construction, categorial formation, and the uses of blending, compression, and conceptual integration help these writers to construct possible or alternative worlds of fiction, interpret and reshape common areas of experience, as well as address individual conflicts and redefine identities, by re-examining and re-categorizing emotions and social roles.
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