Relevance theory is a rather wideranging framework or research programme see below for the. The information for this video was largely taken from ira noveck and daniel sperber s 2006 book entitled experimental pragmatics, primarily chapters 1. I can teach you how to program the subconscious mind dr. The relevance theory relevance theory is a proposal by dan sperber and deirdre wilson. The foundation for relevance theory was established by cognitive scientists dan sperber and deirdre wilson in relevance. Given its cognitivescientific orientation, relevance theory pragmatics is concerned with the online processes of utterance interpretation and the nature of the mental systems responsible for them sperber and wilson 19861995a, wilson and sperber 2004.
Relevance theory henceforth rt, a cognitive theory of human communication by d. Relevance theory henceforth rt is a cognitive pragmatics theory of human communication which was developed in the mid1980s by dan sperber and deirdre. Sperber and wilson, therefore, coined the term explicature for assumptions explicitly communicated by an utterance. Paul grice and developed out of his ideas, but has since become a pragmatic framework in its own right. Interpretation of utterances based on relevance theory.
A lot of recent work in relevance theory and elsewhere has focused on the consequences of this linguistic underdeterminacy of meaning. To this end, sperber and wilson argue that acts of human verbal communication are ostensive in that they draw their addressees attention to the fact that the communicator wants to convey some information. The purpose of the present paper is to critically summarize wilson and sperber s book article relevance theory, published in the handbook of pragmatics, as it has been presented in the seminar pragmatics. For sperber and wilson, relevance is conceived as relative or releevancia, as it depends upon the state of knowledge of a hearer when they encounter an utterance. Communication and cognition, second edition dan sperber, deirdre wilson download bok. Since then, sperber and wilson have expanded and deepened discussions of relevance theory in numerous books and articles.
Relevance theory is a framework for understanding utterance interpretation first proposed by dan sperber and deirdre wilson and used within cognitive linguistics and pragmatics. This paper outlines the main assumptions of relevance theory while attempting to clear up some common objections and misconceptions and points out some new directions for research. The goal of relevance theory is to explain how a hearer infers a speakers meaning on the basis of the evidence provided. It argues that the hearer readeraudience will search for meaning in any given communication situation and having found meaning that fits their expectation of relevance, will stop processing. For sperber and wilson, relevance is conceived as relative or subjective, as it depends upon the state of knowledge of a hearer when they encounter an. Deirdre wilson university college, london parallels and differences in the treatment of metaphor 1in relevance theory and cognitive linguistics keywords. The seminal book, relevance, was first published in 1986 and revised. One recent development is an account of loose use, hyperbole.
Two seminal but unconnected relevance theories of communication are compared. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise cambridge core to connect with your account. This paper 1 presents relevance theory s central commitments in detail and explains the theoretical motivations behind them. The term manifest is denned by sperber and wilson as. Here, we will outline the main assumptions of the current version of the theory and discuss some of. There is no shortage of potential inputs which might have at least some relevance for us, but we cannot attend to them all. The first sentence of the article reads, relevance theory is a proposal by dan sperber and deirdre wilson that seeks to explain the second method of communication. Relevance theory may be seen as an attempt to work out in detail one of grices central claims.
Relevance theory was created in 1986 by dan sperber and deirdre wilson, later developed and modified by the authors in a number of publications e. Citeseerx document details isaac councill, lee giles, pradeep teregowda. Relevance, first published in 1986, was named as one of the most important and influential books of the decade in the times higher educational supplement. Relevance theory henceforth rt has defended from its inception a deflationary account of metaphor as a consequence of defending a continuity view, on which metaphor is interpreted in the same way as other loose uses sperber. Crea, ecole polytechnique and university college london. Relevance theory is a rather wideranging framework or research programme see below for the study of cognition, devised primarily in order to provide an account of communication that is psychologically realistic and empirically plausible. Communication and cognition, sperber and wilson 1986, 1995 present a new approach to the study of human communication. Wilson and sperber argue that comprehension is a process of inference guided by precise expectations of relevance. Department of linguistics university college london. It was originally proposed by sperber and wilson b.
Human cognition tends to be geared to the maximisation of relevance. Pragmatics dan sperber and deirdre wilson abstract this paper considers the implications for philosophy of some recent approaches to pragmatics with a focus on relevance theory and makes two main points. Relevance theory is based on a definition of relevance and two principles of. An overview of the relevance theory english language essay. Relevance theory is based on the view that human cognition is geared towards the maximization of relevance, and that communicated information comes with a guarantee of relevance.
Sperber and wilson s theory begins with some watershed assumptions that are typical of pragmatic theories. Relevance theory is framework for understanding utterance interpretation first proposed by dan sperber and deirdre wilson and used within cognitive linguistics and pragmatics. How do we decide whats relevant in our conversations. Relevance theory aims to explain the well recognised fact that communicators usually convey much more information with their utterances than what is contained in their literal sense. Outline of relevance theory deirdre wilson, dan sperber department of linguistics university college london cnrs and crea ecole polytechnique, paris abstract in this paper, we outline a relevance based approach to pragmatics, the theory of utterance interpretation. Originally developed by dan sperber and deirdre wilson 1995, it has in the last few decades been one of the leading frameworks for pragmatics research. Relevance theory s central insights are formalized in the following twopart principle, the presumption of optimal relevance see postface to sperber and wilsonp. This book enriches and updates relevance theory and explores its implications for linguistics, philosophy, cognitive science and literary studies. Relevance theory is based on a definition of relevance and two principles of relevance. After discussing the nature of relevance and its role in communication and cognition, it assesses two alternative ways of drawing the explicitimplicit distinction, compares relevance theory s approach to. We sketch an inferential account of unencoded causal and temporal components of utterance.
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