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bathroom, and bedroom. The assumed ele-ments of a frame are generally not stated, as in the
advertisement in [5].
[5] Apartment for rent. $500. 763-6683.
A normal (local) interpretation of the small fragment of discourse in [5] will be based on
not only an 'apartment' frame as the basis of inference (if X is an apartment, then X has a
kitchen, a bath-room, and a bedroom), but also an 'apartment for rent' advertise-ment frame.
Only on the basis of such a frame can the advertiser expect the reader to fill in 'per month' and
not 'per year' after '$500' here. If a reader of the discourse in [5] expects that it would be 'per
week', for example, then that reader clearly has a different frame (i. e. based on a different
experience of the cost of apartment rental!). The pragmatic point will nevertheless be the same:
the reader uses a pre-existing knowledge structure to create an interpretation of what is not
stated in the text.
When more dynamic types of schemata are considered, they are more often described
as scripts. A script is a pre-existing know-ledge structure involving event sequences. We use
scripts to build interpretations of accounts of what happened. For example, we have scripts for
what normally happens in all kinds of events, such as going to a doctor's office, a movie
theater, a restaurant, or a grocery store as in [6].
[6] I stopped to get some groceries but there weren't any bas-kets left so by the time I
arrived at the check-out counter I must have looked like a juggler having a bad day.
Part of this speaker's normal script for 'getting groceries' ob-viously involves having a
basket and going to the check-out counter. Everything else that happened in this event
sequence is assumed to be shared background knowledge (for example, she went through a
door to get inside the store and she walked around picking up items from shelves).
The concept of a script is simply a way of recognizing some expected sequence of
actions in an event. Because most of the details of a script are assumed to be known, they are
unlikely to be stated. For members of the same culture, the assumption of shared scripts allows
much to be communicated that is not said. However, for members of different cultures, such an
assumption can lead to a great deal of miscommunication.

Cultural schemata
Everyone has had the experience of surprise when some assumed component of an
event is unexpectedly missing. I remember my first visit to a Moroccan restaurant and the
absence of one of my 'restaurant script' requirements—there were no chairs! (The large
comfortable cushions were an excellent replacement. ) It is almost inevitable that our
background knowledge structures, our schemata for making sense of the world, will be
culturally deter-mined. We develop our cultural schemata in the contexts of our basic
experiences.
For some obvious differences (for example, cushions instead of chairs), we can readily
modify the details of a cultural schema. For many other subtle differences, however, we often
don't recog-nize that there may be a misinterpretation based on different schemata. In one
reported example, an Australian factory super-visor clearly assumed that other factory workers
would know that Easter was close and hence they would all have a holiday. He asked another
worker, originally from Vietnam, about her plans, as in [7].

[7] You have five days off. What are you going to do?