Cover

Meaning and Relevance

Title

Copyright

Contents

Figures

Tables

Preface

Acknowledgements

1 Introduction: pragmatics

1.1 Three approaches to pragmatics

1.2 Literalism and contextualism in semantics

1.3 Explicit and implicit communication

1.4 Lexical pragmatics: metaphor, approximation and narrowing

1.5 Procedural meaning: speech acts, presuppositions and indexicals

1.6 Conclusion

Part I: Relevance and Meaning

2 The mapping between the mental and the public lexicon

2.1 Introduction

2.2 Three types of mapping

2.3 Inference and relevance

2.4 Relevance and meaning

2.5 Implications

3 Truthfulness and relevance

3.1 Introduction

3.2 The case of tropes

3.3 The case of loose use

3.4 Relevance: theory

3.5 Relevance: illustration

3.6 The explicit communication of unencoded meanings

3.7 Rethinking ‘explicit,’ ‘literal’ and ‘what is said’

4 Rhetoric and relevance

4.1 A paradox and a dilemma

4.2 Relevance theory

4.3 Literalness, looseness and metaphor

4.4 Echoing and irony

4.5 The relevance of rhetoric

5 A deflationary account of metaphors

5.1 Introduction

5.2 The function of language in communication

5.3 How relevance guides inferential comprehension

5.4 Meaning construction

5.5 The literal–loose–metaphorical continuum

5.6 Inferential steps

5.7 Strength of contextual implications, strength of implicatures

5.8 Poetic effects

6 Explaining irony

6.1 Traditional approaches to irony

6.2 Three puzzling features of irony

6.3 The echoic account of irony

6.4 Pretence accounts of irony

6.5 Hybrid attributive–pretence accounts

6.6 Explaining the puzzling features of irony

The ironical attitude

Normative bias

The ironical tone of voice

6.7 Conclusion

Part II: Explicit and Implicit Communication

7 Linguistic form and relevance

7.1 Introduction

7.2 Conveying and ostensively communicating

7.3 Linguistic and non-linguistic communication

7.4 Linguistic communication and encoding

7.5 Conceptual and non-conceptual encoding

7.6 Explicit and implicit conceptual encoding

7.7 Proposition expressed versus higher-level explicatures

7.8 Constraints on explicatures and constraints on implicatures

7.9 Conclusion

8 Pragmatics and time

8.1 Introduction

8.2 Temporal and causal connotations: implicatures or pragmatically determined aspects of what is said?

8.3 The sequencing problem and the maxim ‘Be orderly’

8.4 Understanding and relevance

8.5 The interval problem

8.6 The role of contextual assumptions

8.7 Reverse-causal interpretations

8.8 Conclusion

9 Recent approaches to bridging: truth, coherence, relevance

9.1 Introduction

9.2 Pragmatic approaches to bridging

9.2.1 Accessibility

9.2.1.1 Accessibility of linguistic antecedents

9.2.1.2 Accessibility of bridging assumptions

9.2.2 Acceptability

9.2.2.1 Truth-based approaches

9.2.2.2 Coherence-based approaches

9.2.2.3 Relevance-based approaches

9.3 Relevance theory and bridging

9.4 Comparing coherence theory and relevance theory

9.5 Conclusion

10 Mood and the analysis of non-declarative sentences

10.1 Distinguishing mood and force

10.2 Characterising imperative mood

10.3 Explaining non-literal, non-serious cases

10.4 Characterising interrogative mood

10.5 Conclusion

11 Metarepresentation in linguistic communication

11.1 Introduction

11.2 Gricean pragmatics and mindreading

11.3 Relevance theory and communication

11.4 Relevance theory and linguistic metarepresentation

11.4.1 Resemblance in linguistic metarepresentation

11.4.2 Decoding and inference in linguistic metarepresentation

11.4.3 Reporting and echoing

11.4.4 Non-attributive cases

11.5 Conclusion

Part III: Cross-Disciplinary Themes

12 Pragmatics, modularity and mindreading

12.1 Introduction

12.2 Two approaches to communication

12.3 Two approaches to inferential communication

12.4 Relevance, cognition and communication

12.5 Relevance and pragmatics

12.6 Conclusion

13 Testing the cognitive and communicative principles of relevance

13.1 Introduction

13.2 The basic tenets of relevance theory

13.3 Testing the cognitive principle of relevance with relational reasoning tasks

13.4 Testing the communicative principle of relevance with the Wason Selection Task

13.5 Testing the communicative principle of relevance with a speech production task

13.6 Conclusion

14 The why and how of experimental pragmatics: the case of ‘scalar inferences’

14.1 Methodological background: the limits of pragmatic intuitions as evidence

14.2 Theoretical background: scalar implicatures as Generalised Conversational Implicatures (GCIs)

14.3 Relevance theory’s approach

14.4 Methodological considerations in experimental approaches to ‘scalar inferences’

14.5 Developmental studies

14.6 Time course of comprehension among adults

14.7 Conclusion

15 A pragmatic perspective on the evolution of language

15.1 Introduction

15.2 Two models of communication

15.3 The evolution of language and the two models of linguistic communication

15.4 Conclusion

Notes

1 INTRODUCTION: PRAGMATICS

3 TRUTHFULNESS AND RELEVANCE

4 RHETORIC AND RELEVANCE

5 A DEFLATIONARY ACCOUNT OF METAPHORS

6 EXPLAINING IRONY

7 LINGUISTIC FORM AND RELEVANCE

8 PRAGMATICS AND TIME

9 RECENT APPROACHES TO BRIDGING: TRUTH, COHERENCE, RELEVANCE

10 MOOD AND THE ANALYSIS OF NON-DECLARATIVE SENTENCES

11 METAREPRESENTATION IN LINGUISTIC COMMUNICATION

13 TESTING THE COGNITIVE AND COMMUNICATIVE PRINCIPLES OF RELEVANCE

14 THE WHY AND HOW OF EXPERIMENTAL PRAGMATICS: THE CASE OF ‘SCALAR INFERENCES’

15 A PRAGMATIC PERSPECTIVE ON THE EVOLUTION OF LANGUAGE

References

Index