>My sense is that current genre theories would argue that all communicative
>interaction that is sensible is generic activity, not necessarily *a*
>genre, but oriented to genres (e.g., see Bakhtin, Hanks, Bazerman,
>Berkenkotter & Huckin).
Jay wrote:
>The notions break down, or are less useful, in cases where these conditions
>are not met, especially when unit boundaries are fuzzy (meaning they fall
>in different places for different criteria in the same consistent set of
>criteria) and when there is a lot of variation from instance to instance
>that is not easily captured by a simple set of structural options. There
>are many other kinds of salient similarities among action and text besides
>those that can be captured by a genre-like notion, which emphasizes the
>syntagmatic and structural features of a form.
I wonder if Paul agrees with Jay.
I wonder if Jay is suggesting that the notion of register (??) may
describe similarities between action and text when the action isn't
structured by any simple/single genre. Or if he's referring to instances
whose situatedness is not easily defined. And in either case, what the
example(s) in mind might be.
Judy
Judith Diamondstone (732) 932-7496 Ext. 352
Graduate School of Education
Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey
10 Seminary Place
New Brunswick, NJ 08901-1183