Jack Bilmes
My primary current interest is in formulation, particularly in what I call occasioned semantics. I have done fieldwork in Thailand and the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and have published on discourse and interaction, social theory, free market ideology, and Thai social organization. Copies of the papers can be obtained by emailing me at <bilmes@hawaii.edu>. Some recent publications can be downloaded directly from https://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/handle/10125/58964
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and Special Counsel to the President Charles Colson, regarding the Watergate scandal. I find that the conversation is organized largely in terms of three, successively developed contrasts. These contrasts brought into play two “dimensions of contrast”--pervasiveness and importance. The analysis resulted ultimately in a structure of meaning that included both taxonomical and scaling relations. It is shown how this structure is developed sequentially and collaboratively, how ambiguities are resolved, and how both participants
converge on a common interpretation of the situation. Throughout, Watergate is treated primarily as a news story rather than an event or crime. Matters of law and ethics are subordinated to matters of perception and public relations. The ultimate objective of this analysis is methodological--to add to the toolkit of occasioned semantics, the study of how structures of meaning are developed and manifested in verbal discourse. Whereas my previous work has focused primarily on co-categorization, inclusion structures, and scaling, this study shows how contrast can function as the primary element structuring meaning in talk.
and Special Counsel to the President Charles Colson, regarding the Watergate scandal. I find that the conversation is organized largely in terms of three, successively developed contrasts. These contrasts brought into play two “dimensions of contrast”--pervasiveness and importance. The analysis resulted ultimately in a structure of meaning that included both taxonomical and scaling relations. It is shown how this structure is developed sequentially and collaboratively, how ambiguities are resolved, and how both participants
converge on a common interpretation of the situation. Throughout, Watergate is treated primarily as a news story rather than an event or crime. Matters of law and ethics are subordinated to matters of perception and public relations. The ultimate objective of this analysis is methodological--to add to the toolkit of occasioned semantics, the study of how structures of meaning are developed and manifested in verbal discourse. Whereas my previous work has focused primarily on co-categorization, inclusion structures, and scaling, this study shows how contrast can function as the primary element structuring meaning in talk.