Tagmemic Discourse Principles: Strategic Advantages and Unique Features
(Last updated 17 April 1997)
ADVANTAGES OF TAGMEMIC DISCOURSE THEORY
Places no artificial limitation on the subject matter, its form or nature,
that can be investigated under its aegis.
Insists on epistemological and ontological bases for the conclusions
it draws.
Demands attention to situatedness of language and language behavior at
every level of inquiry.
Anticipates observer bias and endeavors to articulate and incorporate it
into the investigation as a factor with which to be reckoned.
Creates a versatile lexicon of useful terms and concepts to identify, describe,
differentiate, and contextualize the nature/features of a unit under inquiry--whether
it is a linguistic, rhetorical, or behavioral phenomenon.
Provides a set of systematic heuristic tools and a consistent notation
system to explore, examine, and test the acceptability and accuracy of
emerging descriptions of data and relationships within and among it.
Projects dissonance and/or anomaly as clues and cues to more ultimate levels
of reality rather than as negatives to be explained away or subsumed in
a contrived, homogenized description.
Affirms universals of language and behavior that cross cultures, languages,
genders.
Privileges persons above abstractions, community over autonomy, philosophical
wholism over reductionism.
Accommodates multiple motivations, worldviews, research modes in its attempts
to confront the complexity, uniqueness, and vitality of human personhood
and communication.
DISCERNING THE UNIQUE FEATURES OF TAGMEMIC DISCOURSE THEORY
Entry into inquiry begins with well-defined goals, a working hypothesis,
or finite set of research questions. The ultimate goal of every tagmemic
inquiry is an "emic" understanding or etically-verified hypothesis about
the investigated phenomenon.
Point of entry may be the somewhat known or recognizable unit (usually,
but not always a "particle") which serves as the bridge to other contextualized
particles, waves, etc.
Goal is progressively pursued and modified by incremental progress toward
an emic understanding of (or etically-verified hypothesis about) the unit
being investigated, with certain universals evoked at appropriate stages
to give the inquiry boundaries and landmarks by which to judge progress.
The tools of the investigation include, characteristically, the particle,
wave, and field perspectives whose application yields data that
may classified as contrastive/ identificational features, range of variation
features, and distribution features.
Observations, including initial, projected relations between and among
and within particle, wave, and field data are progressively sharpened with
references to the four-celled tagmeme notation, which is intended to assist
the inquirer both heuristically to explore and in terms of storage
as a convenient matrix with which to record information.
The tagmemic inquirer continues the inquiry until, in one way or another,
the goals of the inquiry are met, modified, or satisfied by other means.
The end of the inquiry is achieved by either (a) corroboration by a reliable
or credentialled "native" observer that the description approaches tolerable
emicity; or (b) an empirical test, etic-based, that satisfies the criteria
of correspondence, consistency, and usefulness.
A tagmemic "report" (1) prefaces the etic/emic description of the investigated
phenomena with a discussion of goals and expectations; (2) provides a chronology
of the investigation; (3) offers an overview of the data generated and/or
explored; (4) states the emic (or, etically-tested) conclusions; (5) projects
further fruitful angles of vision and/or research questions to pursue in
follow-up.
The tagmemic inquiry/analysis/report is unique in so far as its final product
is intended to be qualified by and sensitive to the maximum context, the
discernible intra/inter/outer relationships, and corroborably-identifiable
features available to the observer/inquirer. Its claims are never to exhaustive
comprehensiveness but to tolerable similitude to "the thing itself," or
an emic understanding of it.
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This page was created and is maintained by Dr. Bruce L. Edwards, Graduate
Coordinator and Professor of English, Department of English, Bowling Green
State University, Bowling Green, OH 43403. Fax: 419-372-0333; Office: 419-372-6864
