ATLAS OF LANGUAGE

AT-DEP3-0007 · ATLAS 260

Discourse world

A shared representational world of people, events and assumptions constructed by a text or conversation.

Part of the subject path Argumentation, Logic and Discourse

Why is this entry in the Atlas?

A · Analytical concept R1 · Distinct contribution to understanding

Discourse world contributes an account of the environment built through communication, provided its relation to the represented text world is specified. Presumed shared knowledge is one resource of a discourse environment, not its complete constructed content.

Colours and admission grounds

The rectangular label identifies the entry function: F – linguistic figure or procedure; A – analytical concept; G – foundational concept; E – selected concrete case. The rounded badge indicates the admission ground: R1 – distinctive contribution; R2 – necessary foundation; R3 – justified illustrative case. This editorial rationale explains the current selection rather than claiming an undocumented original selection history.

Explanation

A discourse world is the shared representational environment progressively constructed by a text or conversation. People, places, events, times, and assumptions are introduced, maintained, and connected. This environment is not identical with extra-linguistic reality: even factual conversation makes only purpose-relevant portions linguistically available, while fiction may construct an autonomous world with stable rules. Pronouns, definite descriptions, and omissions work because participants track what has already been introduced or provisionally accepted within this world. Misunderstanding occurs when they update different discourse worlds.

Movement of thought

1. An utterance introduces an entity, person, event, or assumption. 2. Further utterances resume elements and add relations. 3. Participants distinguish current, remembered, hypothetical, and merely reported domains. 4. New information changes what is accessible within the joint representation. 5. Returning to earlier expressions reveals that their reference depends on the world built in discourse.

Scientific use case

Conversation and text analysis can annotate introductions, resumptions, world shifts, and repairs. Especially revealing are points at which reference fails or participants must explicitly clarify which hypothetical or remembered situation currently applies.

Example

“There is an old table in the garden. A letter lies on it.” The pronoun is intelligible because the table has already entered the discourse world as a spatial anchor.

Counterexample

Two people possessing the same information does not yet constitute a particular discourse world unless it functions as a joint space of reference in their exchange. Nor must their internal representations be complete copies of one another.

Distinction

Distinguish discourse world from possible world, common ground, and discourse space. A possible world is a logical model, common ground is presumed shared information, and a discourse world is the concrete representational environment linguistically constructed in a text or exchange.

Effect on thought and perception

A discourse world supports coherence and reference across sentences but may also make unequal knowledge states appear shared.

Resonance

Every new utterance answers the environment already constructed and changes which figures and possibilities continue to reverberate within it.

Cite this entry

Reich, Michael (Hrsg./ed.): „Discourse world“. Atlas der Sprache, AT-DEP3-0007. ATLAS 260, data model 1.6.0. https://atlasoflanguage.com/concept/AT-DEP3-0007

https://atlasoflanguage.com/concept/AT-DEP3-0007

The address remains stable; editorial content may evolve. Editorial reading state: 2026-10-15. Include your access date for precise references.

Historical background

Gavins’s 2001 dissertation explicates Werth’s Text World Theory by separating the discourse world from the text world. The discourse world concerns actual participants and their communicative circumstances, including knowledge available to them. A text world is the mental representation built while processing the discourse. The distinction prevents fictional events from being placed on the same analytical level as the situation of telling or reading them. Werth’s earlier publications are accessed through Gavins here. This model-specific account does not establish an English first attestation or authorise replacing every broader use of discourse world with one narrow technical definition.

How conceptual history changes the analysis

Separate the circumstances of communication from the represented situation. Differences in participants’ knowledge can affect interpretation, while the text still constrains what may reasonably be added.

Additional example

Original example: A teacher reads a storm scene to a class. The classroom interaction and the participants’ knowledge belong to the discourse-world level; the represented travellers and storm belong to a text world. Countercheck: vivid imaginative involvement does not make the classroom physically part of the storm.

References for the historical section

Historical source evidence and Atlas applications remain separate; this import does not assert new first attestations or a fresh exhaustive source verification.