ABSTRACT
The concept of dialogicality permeates everything Ragnar Rommetveit has written. Ragnar Rommetveit represents an alternative to research approaches that enhance the segmentation of insights into language, thought, and communication, rather than their integration. This chapter explores some crucial dimensions of Rommetveit's thought in order to dem onstrate their relevance and importance to scientific disciplines, in particular to the study of language and communication in psychology and education. In Rommetveit's thinking, language and communication are the focus, and the social dimension is always present. Cognitive and emotional components of word meaning are, in Rommetveit's view, inextricably fused. Culturally given limits to word meanings are clearly acted out in parents' or schoolteachers' interactions with a child developing language during preschool and school years. One might rightly argue that, to Rommetveit, the dialogue is the alpha and omega of mental as well as language development.
