Text World Theory Welcome to the Text World Theory website.

Text World Theory is a cognitive-linguistic model of human discourse processing.

Its theoretical origins can be traced to a number of diverse academic disciplines, including cognitive psychology, possible worlds theory, cognitive linguistics and literary theory.

The basic premise of Text World Theory is that human beings process and understand all discourse by constructing mental representations of it in their minds. Text World Theory aims to provide the methodological tools necessary for the systematic examination and discussion of these mental representations, or text-worlds.

Text World Theory was originally developed by Professor Paul Werth at the University of Amsterdam during the 1980s and 1990s. Werth provided a detailed account of the fundamental workings of the text-world framework in his monograph Text Worlds: Representing Conceptual Space in Discourse, which was published posthumously in 1999.

Werth claimed to have devised a methodological framework capable of accounting for the cognitive processes behind the production and interpretation of all forms of human communication; from telephone conversations to dramatic performance, from church sermons to newspaper reports. These ambitious objectives, coupled with Werth's infectious enthusiasm and inspiring prose, have continued to generate great interest in Text World Theory in the years since their author's death.

Text World Theory in the 21st Century is one of the most dynamic and influential areas of current cognitive study.

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