cit introductions because the script itself has already implicitly introduced them (41).
Scripts enable information to be exchanged with great economy because the speakers' mutual expectations and assumptions allow gaps to be left in conversations, gaps which are filled by the speakers' common knowledge. For example, a speaker of American English might tell the following story: "Frankie got a Happy Meal and ate it on his way home from school. The fries were soggy". Although this story lacks a number of potentially critical details, such as where Frankie got his food, another speaker of American English would have no trouble following it because the story follows what Schank and Abelson call the "restaurant script" (42), which, unsurprisingly, codifies the usual, expected elements which are part of the "restaurant" experience.
Thus, an American English speaker would not need to ask where Frankie got his food because he or she would be familiar with the fact that one can get Happy Meals at McDonald's. A speaker of American English would also know that Frankie is a child, because only children can purchase Happy Meals. Furthermore, the determiner the is allowed with french fries because Happy Meals come with french fries, and so a savvy interlocutor would not need to be specifically informed that Frankie had some; the fact that he did can simply be assumed, as it is in the story above.
To illustrate the important role of scripts in everyday discourse, consider the following example, another hypothetical story: "There was a great quantity of tuna in the kitchen. The embittered young executive dusted off his trousers and hoisted himself up after his fall". This story is almost completely impenetrable, even though the sentences which comprise it are solidly grammatical and utterly comprehensible unto themselves. Taken together, however, they leave a listener mystified. The second sentence does not follow logically (o...