In this chapter, we discuss how the various assumptions and principles that underlie the relevance-theoretic pragmatic framework can be applied to the pragmatic processes and inferential tasks. We begin by introducing relevance as an analytical framework that is based on key assumptions about human cognition and communication. These assumptions have consequences, and they allow us to explain and predict how utterances are interpreted. We see how these consequences play out in a range of examples that are discussed in the rest of the chapter. We start by looking at implicitly communicated meaning, before considering where we might draw the line between implicitly and explicitly communicated meaning. According to relevance theory, inference plays a role, not only in working out what a speaker is implicating, but also in working out what she is explicitly communicating. We then look in more detail at the various inferential processes that contribute to a speaker’s explicit meaning (reference assignment, disambiguation, and pragmatic enrichment), and we think about how a hearer reaches a hypothesis about the speaker’s overall intended meaning.

This chapter explains how the interplay between different societal factors and new technologies fosters a new form of social organization, which is no longer based on the individual or the traditional community but revolves around the idea of a network. Therefore, it discusses the idea of the network society along with the concepts of timeless time, the space of flows, and the weightless economy as well as the leading theories on network societies. The chapter outlines the effects of the increasing fusion of national public spheres with global information flows on public communication and presents two opposing developments: the participatory character of public communication and its restriction through economic interests and algorithmic processes. Furthermore, it focuses on the concept of network sociality, which is based on the assumption that networks and not communities are the dominant organizational form in a digital society. The chapter illustrates the role of social media in building and maintaining networks and introduces the term social capital, in order to understand network motivation. It ends with a reflection on the influence of algorithms on our socialities.

looks at the impact digital technology is having on the way people communicate and how this has given rise to emoji culture. One of the key ways in which technology has an effect on language is in terms of what it does and doesn’t allow people to do. People adapt their language practices to the constraints imposed by the available technology, and, over time, these practices develop into linguistic conventions. Emoji are an archetypal product of the role technology plays in our life - they’re intimately tied to the devices we use to communicate. But they’re also a product of social media culture and of the way this technology has brought about a new informality in the way we write to each other. This chapter looks at how emoji fit within this larger context, as well as how features of human-computer interaction such as auto-predict are integrating these technologies ever more into the infrastructure of our daily lives.