Abstract:

Discourse is like an iceberg floating in the ocean. Its visible part symbolizes the tangible language whereas its submerged part implicates the underlying meaning, which can be procured via inferences on the basis of many factors such as assumptions, expectations and convictions. The language user's knowledge thereby increases with the activation, construction and change of a set of context models which prove to be essential for pragmatic inferences.

Key words: discourse, expectation, context, inference