Occasioned Semantics and Membership Categorisation Analysis: Fields of meaning, categorial consistency and omni-relevance

• Published in: Journal of pragmatics Vol. 226; pp. 17 - 30
• Main Authors: Kim, Younhee, Fitzgerald, Richard
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier B.V 01.06.2024
• Subjects: Definitions; Fields of meaning; Membership Categorisation Analysis; Occasioned Semantics; Omni-relevance; Structures of meaning; Occasioned Semantics; Omni-relevance; Structures of meaning; Fields of meaning; Membership Categorisation Analysis; Definitions
• ISSN: 0378-2166; 1879-1387
• DOI: 10.1016/j.pragma.2024.03.017

Bilmes's work in the last decade of his career was primarily concerned with the approach he developed and called Occasioned Semantics. Bilmes based OS on Sacks' (1995) membership categorisation work together with components of taxonomical analysis derived from ethno-semantics. While the approach was primarily aimed at the field of Semantics, Bilmes also argued that OS offered a way to develop upon Sacks' work by situating categorial inferencing within ‘occasioned fields of meaning’ within which categorial definitions and descriptions evolve through a taxonomic branching texture. In this paper we explore the potential analytic intersection between aspects of Bilmes' OS and Sacks' category analysis together with later developments in Membership Categorisation Analysis (MCA). In particular we revisit the ‘consistency rule’ together with ‘omni-relevance’, which provides a way of understanding shifts in fields of meaning as hierarchical and multi-layered. The combined approach allows to bring into view multi-layered sequential and categorial flow with taxonomic branching that takes place within an ongoing, unfolding and contingent interactional context of ‘who-we-are-and-what-we-are-doing’. •Explore the analytic intersections of Occasioned Semantics and MCA.•Consider how combined OS and MCA can add to the analytic insights of each other.•Explore how emergent structures of meaning are co-constructed by participants.•Shed further light onto the routine layering of members' situated categorial practices.•Revisit the ‘consistency rule’ together with ‘omni-relevance’.