Book contents
- Relevance, Pragmatics and Interpretation
- Relevance, Pragmatics and InterpretationEssays in Honour of Deirdre Wilson
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Cover Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Reflections on the Development of Relevance Theory
- Part I Relevance Theory and Cognitive Communicative Issues
- 1 Scientific Tractability and Relevance Theory
- 2 Language Processing, Relevance and Questions
- 3 Quasi-Factives and Cognitive Efficiency
- 4 Evidential Explicatures and Mismatch Resolution
- 5 Representation and Metarepresentation in Negation
- 6 Pronouns in Free Indirect Discourse
- 7 The Development of Pragmatic Abilities
- Part II Pragmatics and Linguistic Issues
- Part III Figurative Language and Layered Interpretations
- References
- Author Index
- Subject Index
1 - Scientific Tractability and Relevance Theory
from Part I - Relevance Theory and Cognitive Communicative Issues
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 08 July 2019
- Relevance, Pragmatics and Interpretation
- Relevance, Pragmatics and InterpretationEssays in Honour of Deirdre Wilson
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Cover Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Reflections on the Development of Relevance Theory
- Part I Relevance Theory and Cognitive Communicative Issues
- 1 Scientific Tractability and Relevance Theory
- 2 Language Processing, Relevance and Questions
- 3 Quasi-Factives and Cognitive Efficiency
- 4 Evidential Explicatures and Mismatch Resolution
- 5 Representation and Metarepresentation in Negation
- 6 Pronouns in Free Indirect Discourse
- 7 The Development of Pragmatic Abilities
- Part II Pragmatics and Linguistic Issues
- Part III Figurative Language and Layered Interpretations
- References
- Author Index
- Subject Index
Summary
Nicholas Allott considers how relevance theory can be seen as responding to doubts about the possibility of any kind of systematic pragmatic theory. He considers three sceptical positions: Fodor’s argument that pragmatic processes are not amenable to scientific study because they are unencapsulated (highly context-sensitive), Chomsky’s claim that human intentional action is a mystery rather than a scientifically tractable problem, and a third view which maintains that intentional communication is too complex for systematic study. Allott argues that work in relevance theory can be seen as successfully challenging these sceptical views and he gives concrete examples of its achievements.
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- Relevance, Pragmatics and Interpretation , pp. 29 - 41Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2019
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