Framing in Interaction

This volume invites its readers to rethink the linguistic basis for framing analysis by problematizing the existing foundation and presenting eight new pragmatically based framing analyses.

The book challenges the assumption that there is a unilateral, one-to-one relationship between words and frames, such that framing occurs when a language user is exposed to a word that activates a frame.

Conversely, it is assumed that framing emerges in social interaction through a complex interplay between the participants, the semiotic resources employed, the circumstances, and the multiple frames of interaction. This assumption calls for the relationship between words and frames to be analyzed in pragmatics, including in cross-fertilization with other disciplines such as discourse analysis, interaction analysis, sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, and social psychology.

The assumption is operationalized in eight different exemplary framing analyses. Each analysis has its own focus, drawing on its own disciplines, and utilizing its own concepts, tools, and methods.

The results of the analyses are noteworthy and demonstrate how a pragmatic approach to framing analysis can enhance the validity and reliability of the analysis.