scholarly journals RELEVANCE THEORY AND METAPHOR

2014 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 489-509 ◽  
Author(s):  
Esther Romero ◽  
Belén Soria
Keyword(s):  
Ad Hoc ◽  
Relevance Theory ◽  
Emergent Property ◽  
Conceptual Domain ◽  
Metaphorical Interpretation

In this article we show the evolution of the view of metaphor in relevance theory and challenge its deflationary account of metaphor, defended from its inception, as loosening in a continuum. In current relevance theory, loose uses not only convey implicatures but also explicatures in which ad hoc concepts appear (CARSTON, 2002, 2010a; SPERBER; WILSON, 2008). These, in the case of metaphor, cause the emergent property issue which, according to them, is solved taking into account that a loose use may be included in a loose use (WILSON; CARSTON, 2008). In addition, the most creative cases have to be explained considering an interpretation route different from ad hoc concept construction (CARSTON, 2010b). These moves generate new problems and thus we argue that metaphorical interpretation can be better explained resorting to metaphorical ad hoc concepts that result from a partial mapping from one conceptual domain into another (ROMERO; SORIA, 2005).

scholarly journals Classifier constructions as procedural referring expressions in American Sign Language

2015 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 368-391
Author(s):  
Stephen Jones
Keyword(s):  
American Sign Language ◽  
Sign Language ◽  
Ad Hoc ◽  
Relevance Theory ◽  
American Sign ◽  
Referring Expressions ◽  
Main Claim ◽  
Procedural Instruction ◽  
Procedural Instructions ◽  
Conceptual Meaning

The present paper comments on signs of American Sign Language in the perspective of relevance theory. The main claim is that classifiers encode procedural instructions to help the addressee pick out the intended referent for the procedural referring expressions made with classifier constructions. The author explains how three classes of classifiers differently manipulate concepts to instruct the addressee to create ad hoc concepts though the use of inference, narrowing, and broadening. It is also claimed that classifier constructions do not encode a conceptual meaning, but a procedural instruction. The discussion includes illustrations of how the speaker’s using classifier constructions instead of lexical signs may increase the number of cognitive effects on the part of the addressee.

Complementarity of the Relevance-theoretic and Cognitive Linguistic Approaches to Metaphor Study: A Critical Review

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 592
Author(s):  
Dan Wu
Keyword(s):  
Critical Review ◽  
Cognitive Linguistics ◽  
Ad Hoc ◽  
Research Work ◽  
Emergent Property ◽  
Theoretic Approach ◽  
Cognitive Linguistic ◽  
Metaphor Interpretation ◽  
Current Concerns ◽  
Linguistic Approaches

This paper attempts to take a critical review of research work on the complementarity of the cognitive linguistic and relevance-theoretic approaches to metaphor study. Addressing the current concerns and problems of metaphor studies, the complementarity view demonstrates the cooperative potential of relevance-theoretic and cognitive linguistic approaches which will benefit metaphor studies and give full accounts of metaphor understanding and interpretation. In particular, the relevance-theoretic approach gives an account of ad hoc concept, emergent property and mental imagery which complements the cognitive linguistics and helps solve some issues in metaphor interpretation.

How to Signal Lexical Concept Adjustment: A Relevance-Theoretic Perspective on Hedging

2014 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 240-262 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ewa Wałaszewska
Keyword(s):  
Ad Hoc ◽  
Relevance Theory ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Consistent Manner ◽  
Interpretation Process ◽  
Lexical Concept

The goal of the paper is to show that relevance theory provides a theoretically sound framework for describing properties of expressions traditionally known as hedges in a consistent manner. In relevance-theoretic terms, hedges may be regarded as special linguistic expressions developed to guide hearers in the interpretation process, indicating the need for adjusting lexically encoded concepts. A closer look at several representative hedges: sort of, like, typical, regular and real, reveals that hedges may be re-classified according to how they interact with ad hoc concepts. Whether they are conceptual or procedural, hedges may signal: broadening (sort of, regular, real), narrowing (typical) or either of these processes (like). With regard to broadening, it turns out that at least two different types of this process may be distinguished, illustrated by the hedges sort of and regular/real, which introduce approximations and metaphors, respectively. It is also proposed that the classification should be expanded to accommodate Lasersohn’s “slack regulators” such as exactly (and possibly very) as expressions encoding a procedure to restrict the extent of broadening. Finally, properties and behaviour of different types of hedges may shed some light on the nature of procedural meaning.

scholarly journals Like in Similes – A Relevance-Theoretic View

2013 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 323-334 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ewa Wałaszewska
Keyword(s):  
Ad Hoc ◽  
Relevance Theory ◽  
Similarities And Differences

The paper examines the meaning of like as used in similes in the light of relevance theory. Similes, even though superficially indistinguishable from literal comparisons, are found to be closer to metaphors. Therefore, it is proposed that like in similes is different from like employed in literal comparisons. In particular, it is claimed that, contrary to the current relevance-theoretic position on this issue, like in similes introduces an ad hoc concept. This like is seen as both conceptual and procedural and, as such, it is distinct from both the conceptual like used in literal comparisons and the procedural like functioning as a pragmatic marker. Such a solution accounts for the similarities and differences between similes, metaphors and literal comparisons.

scholarly journals Relevance, ad hoc concepts and analogy

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 155-168
Author(s):  
Ewa Mioduszewska
Keyword(s):  
Ad Hoc ◽  
Relevance Theory ◽  
Mental Life ◽  
Common Experience ◽  
Mental Structure ◽  
Optimal Relevance ◽  
Linguistic System

In Relevance Theory (RT) concepts are “enduring elementary mental structure[s] capable of playing different discriminatory or inferential roles on different occasions in an individual’s mental life.” (Sperber & Wilson, 2012, p. 35). They may be lexicalized atomic concepts, ad hoc atomic concepts not encoded in our linguistic system and some innate concepts (Carston, 2010, p. 14). Concepts may be shared between interlocutors, idiosyncratic but grounded in common experience or fully idiosyncratic and non-communicable. They are “arrived at through the mutual pragmatic adjustment of explicature and contextual implicatures.” (Carston, 2010, p. 10). Ad-hoc concepts are “pragmatically derived, generally ineffable, non-lexicalized […] rough indication to aid readers in understanding what we have in mind in particular cases.” (Carston 2010, p. 13). Concepts encoded will only occasionally be the same as the ones communicated because words are used to convey indefinitely many other ad hoc concepts constructed in a given context (Sperber & Wilson, 2012, p. 43). Apparently, RT restricts the construction of ad hoc concepts by the search for relevance (definitions of (optimal) relevance, principles of relevance and relevance-theoretic comprehension procedure) and the potential connection (narrowing or broadening) between the denotations of the encoded and constructed concepts. The mechanisms underlying category narrowing/broadening seem not to be explicitly described and explained. What provides a very general but, at the same time, precise account of concept-relatedness is Hofstadter & Sander’s (2013) understanding of analogy. The question posed here is whether this understanding may help explain concept-relatedness in Relevance Theory.

Non-lexicalised concepts and degrees of effability

2001 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adrian Pilkington
Keyword(s):  
Ad Hoc ◽  
Relevance Theory ◽  
Phenomenal Concepts ◽  
On Line

Some concepts — and hence the thoughts that contain them — are relatively ineffable. Some literary communication nevertheless attempts to eff these concepts. This article is interested in the nature of such concepts and the extent to which pragmatics can deal with them. I discuss the idea, familiar from Relevance Theory and developed in Carston (1996; forthcoming), that pragmatic inferencing is involved in on-line ad hoc concept construction, certainly in the case of concept narrowing, but also possibly in the case of concept loosening. I then discuss the relative effability of non-lexicalised concepts, borrowing from Sperber and Wilson (1998) and focussing on phenomenal concepts (or concepts with a significant phenomenal component). I then define poetic thoughts as thoughts containing such concepts.

Worlds in worlds: Assigning inferences to subdomains

2004 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan Bailin
Keyword(s):  
Ad Hoc ◽  
Linguistic Terms ◽  
Conceptual Domain ◽  
Complex Phenomena

AbstractThis article examines the question of when inferences we make from a text apply to a conceptual subdomain and not the main conceptual domain of the text. In the process of understanding a text, we make these determinations all the time, easily, intuitively. This would suggest underlying principles, rather than ad hoc judgments or a wide set of disparate factors. It is such underlying principles that this article investigates. The framework proposed here allows us to account not only for instances in which a space builder is crucial to assigning propositions to subdomains, but also for cases where there is no such explicit mechanism. It allows us to account in a systematic way for the fact that certain linguistic terms can function as space builders at certain times but not at others, as well as providing ways of understanding more complex phenomena related to metaphor and equivocation.

scholarly journals Simile and Metaphor Interpretation in Children

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 91
Author(s):  
Yusi Song
Keyword(s):  
Ad Hoc ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Experimental Studies ◽  
Relevance Theory ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Experimental Results ◽  
Comparison Theory ◽  
Figurative Speech ◽  
Metaphor Interpretation

Metaphors and similes have been treated as the same comparable types of figurative speech since Aristotle. In early theories, metaphors are interpreted as corresponding similes by paraphrasing. Based on this theoretical framework, some experimental studies interpret simile understanding as evidence for metaphor understanding. However, according to Relevance Theory, similes are interpreted as comparisons, whereas metaphors are interpreted as categorization statements. Therefore, only metaphor reveals metaphor interpretation. In other words, studies cannot use simile interpretation as evidence for metaphor interpretation ability in children. Simile should be easier to understand for children since they exclude an “ad hoc concept” construction as in metaphor understanding. This study seeks evidence showing children’s better performance in simile interpretation than that in metaphor interpretation, thus supporting Relevance Theory. For the Relevance Theory account, whether the experiments use similes or metaphors as testing materials is of considerable significance, whereas for comparison account, it is not. By review and re-interpretation of the empirical studies, we find that few early studies expose “real metaphor” understanding in children. Most experimental results indicate that simile interpretation is easier than metaphor interpretation for children. We consider comparison theory and the Relevance Theory as complementary strategies in metaphor interpretation.

The pragmatics of luxury

2020 ◽  
Vol 83 ◽  
pp. 25-39
Author(s):  
Marisa Diez-Arroyo
Keyword(s):  
Ad Hoc ◽  
Relevance Theory ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Lexical Items

This paper investigates the lexical items used in online automobile advertising to characterize the motorcar as a luxury product. The main questions examined are, firstly, how certain words are interpreted as denoting luxury concepts by potential readers, and, secondly, whether luxury and non-luxury marques differ in the use of these units. The issues here are addressed from a double theoretical framework: a theory of luxury, which allows for the identification and classification of the vocabulary of luxury, and Relevance Theory, a pragmatic model which explains how words are subject to pragmatic modulation during interpretation, leading to the construction of ad hoc concepts.

scholarly journals Lingua-Ethological Causes of Communicative Failures: Pragmatic Aspect

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 143
Author(s):  
Olga Dubtsova ◽  
Viktoriia Petrenko ◽  
Oksana Kovalenko ◽  
Nataliia Samsonenko
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Theory ◽  
Relevance Theory ◽  
Conceptual Content ◽  
Knowledge Based ◽  
Pragmatic Aspect ◽  
Communicative Act ◽  
Metaphorical Interpretation ◽  
Verbal Utterance

The paper reveals and describes communicative failures caused by differences in structures of communicants’ lingua-ethological encyclopedic knowledge based on the cognitive theory of dynamic construal of meaning. А communicative failure is viewed as a speech-behavioural act, where there is no semiosis (the addresser’s verbal and/or non-verbal utterance does not evoke any conventional conceptual content in the addressee’s mind) or there is ambivalent semiosis (the addresser and addressee privilege different aspects of the conceptual content structured by different frames (scripts)/domains, which results in the divergence between the addressee’s inferences and addresser’s presuppositions. It is alleged that communicative failures can be caused by differences in structures of communicants’ lingua-ethological knowledge of general principles regulating communicative behaviour. The addresser’s verbal and/or non-verbal utterance triggers different aspects of the conventional conceptual content in the minds of the communicants structured by different frames (scripts)/domains, which leads to the divergence between the addressee’s inferences and addresser’s presuppositions. Differences in structures of communicants’ lingua-ethological encyclopedic knowledge result from the addressee’s failure to select the most relevant way of interpreting the addresser’s utterance due to the violation of interpersonal rhetoric principles, in particular, Relevance Theory principles caused by a disregard of lingual and extra-lingual context of a communicative act. This results in a false interpretation of homonymous verbal utterances, utterance implicatures enabling both literal and metaphorical interpretation or implicatures connected with recognizing irony/sarcasm as well as the addresser’s communicative intentions and utterance addressing.

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