Foreword

Links & Letters 3, 1996 7 Foreword We are happy to present Issue 3 of Links e+ Letters. For our current readers the goal of providing accessible information to speciaiists and non-speciaiists alike is already given or old information but for newcomers to the journai it is worth emphasizing our commitment to providing an up-to-date, non-technicai journal so that anyone interested in keeping abreast with current research related to the monographic issues can do so. Links e+ Letters intends to be a helpful starting point for students beginning to undertake research on Pragmatics by providing a selected and annotated bibliography, which has been incorporated for the first time in this issue. Articles and book reviews illustrating a variety of approaches and views to the field of Pragmatics have also been included. This year the monographic topic is dedicated Pragmatics understood in the widest sense. The first three articles present current theoretical concerns. Peter Auer starts by discussing the important distinction between the notions of context and contextualization. The second article by Maria Teresa Espinal is concerned with the role of the lexicon in utterance interpretation and how these pragmatic considerations fit into a formal theory of language. Reiko Itani's article follows along the same theoretical line with a discussion of literal meaning of the sentence within a Relevance Theory framework. The article by Robin Lakoff takes up the interconnections between language and culture. The evolution of the 0. J. Simpson trial xior to the final verdict provides an excellent example of how the American people, the U.S. judicial system and press through their discourse avoid confronting such politically sensitive issues as race and gender. Helena Calsamiglia applies aspects of Benveniste's Enunciation Theory to explain variation of self-reference in written texts. And the last article by Josep Maria Cots looks at how the anaiysis of classroom interactions can provide a better ~nderstandin~ of teaching and learning environments. An interview about the state of the art in Pragmatics with Jef Verschueren, a proponent of Pragmatics as an multidisciplinary enterprise, attempts to sort out the many different threads of pragmatic research. A section of book reviews follows with a total of eight publications related to Discourse Analysis and Pragmatics published since 199 1. In Notes and News, the last section, you can find information about different activities, and research currently being undertaken in the English Department at the Universitat Autbnoma de Barcelona, as well as forthcoming events of interest to our readers. 8 Links & Letters 3, 1996 Foreword We hope that with Issue 3 of Links & Letters we have satisfied the curiosity some of you may have initially had about the field of Pragmatics and in the case of other readers we hope to have stimulated new concerns and questions that you will continue to pursue. If either of these ends have been met then we will have achieved our goal of serving as a link between you and us. Melissa G. Moyer Coordinator Issue 3