A Pragmatic Analysis of Discourse Connectives in the Framework of Relevance Theory

2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
ZHOU Da-jun ◽  
REN Miao-miao ◽  
MING Rui-long
Keyword(s):  
Relevance Theory ◽  
Pragmatic Analysis ◽  
Discourse Connectives

Neo-Gricean Pragmatics and the Lexicon

2009 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 118-153 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yan Huang
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Study ◽  
Relevance Theory ◽  
John Stuart Mill ◽  
Theoretical Frameworks ◽  
Lexical Meaning ◽  
Pragmatic Theory ◽  
Logical Operators ◽  
Seminal Work ◽  
Separate Branch ◽  
Pragmatic Analysis

AbstractInterest in the pragmatics of the lexicon is probably as old as that in pragmatics itself, as can be seen in the early work by e.g.the 19 th century British philosophers John Stuart Mill and Augustus De Morgan, and the more recent, seminal work by Grice (1975, 1989) and McCawley (1978). However, a revival of this interest has occurred since the 1990s, and there has since been an acceleration in the development of a separate branch of lexical pragmatics. Currently, lexical pragmatics - the systematic study of aspects of meaning-related properties of lexical items that are dependent on or modifi ed in language in use, i.e.that part of lexical meaning which is parasitic on what is coded but is not part of what is coded (e.g.Huang 1998) – is a hot pursuit within at least three diff erent theoretical frameworks of pragmatics, namely, neo-Gricean pragmatic theory (e.g.Horn 1984, 1989, 2003, 2006a, b, 2007, Huang 1998, 2005, 2008, 2009, Levinson 2000), neo-Gricean oriented bidirectional optimality-theoretic (OT) pragmatics (e.g.Blutner 1998, 2004, forthcoming) and relevance theory (e.g.Carston 1997, Wilson 2003, Wilson and Carston 2007). e aim of this article is to present a neo-Gricean pragmatic analysis of four central topics in lexical pragmatics: lexical narrowing, lexical cloning, lexical blocking, and asymmetry in the lexicalization of certain logical operators.

A Relevance–Theoretical Account of Three Arabic Pragmatic Operators of Concession in a Political Discourse

2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rasheed S. Al-Jarrah ◽  
Ahmad M. Abu Dalu ◽  
Marwan Jarrah
Keyword(s):  
Ambiguity Resolution ◽  
Political Discourse ◽  
Relevance Theory ◽  
Viable Alternative ◽  
Jordanian Arabic ◽  
Theoretical Account ◽  
Social Settings ◽  
Viable Approach ◽  
Discourse Connectives ◽  
Point Of Departure

AbstractThe present study aims at explaining how the Relevance Theory could be a viable approach to weigh up the main functions of some concessive Pragmatic Operators (henceforth POs) in Jordanian Arabic at the production and interpretation levels. A sample of twenty-two speeches delivered by members of the Jordanian Parliament the 16th was randomly selected for scrutiny. Three POs (namely, laakin, bal and wa) detected in their speeches were analyzed at the token level in light of three elementary RT assumptions about discourse connectives in general, namely connectivity (Fraser 1996), the conceptual-procedural distinction (Blakemore 1987, 1988, 1992, 2002; Wilson and Sperber 1993; Grice 1989), and monosemy (Fretheim 2000; cf. Borderia 2008). The major finding of this study was that concessive POs, as a subset of contrastives, are used to optimize relevance: highlight certain dimensions and/or suppress others of the scenario to the background. However, the point of departure from possibly all previous treatments is that the speakers, as politicians, still used them more strategically because total ambiguity resolution should not be a viable alternative in social settings laden with politics.

scholarly journals Relevance Theory

Linguistics ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas Allott
Keyword(s):  
Philosophy Of Language ◽  
Cognitive Process ◽  
Logical Form ◽  
Relevance Theory ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
History Of ◽  
Figurative Speech ◽  
Maximal Relevance ◽  
Dan Sperber ◽  
Discourse Connectives

Relevance theory attempts to provide a psychologically realistic, explicit account of communication. It makes foundational claims about both cognition in general and utterances and how they are processed in particular. The former is the cognitive principle of relevance: cognition tends to seek maximal relevance, where an input to a cognitive process is more relevant the more positive effects it has on the mind’s representations of the world, and less relevant the greater the effort required to derive them. Although on this view we have a tendency to seek the greatest possible payoff for the least possible effort, there is no general guarantee that an input to a cognitive process will be relevant. However, communication is special. Speakers want to be understood, and they therefore tailor their utterances to their audience. Relevance theory claims that this raises a defeasible expectation that the utterance will be “optimally relevant”; that is, that it is both relevant enough to be worth processing and as relevant as the speaker is willing and able to make it. (This is the communicative principle of relevance.) It further claims that this mandates the relevance-theoretic comprehension heuristic: a fast and frugal procedure dedicated to processing utterances. Relevance theory claims that what a speaker communicates falls into two classes: explicatures, or propositions that are developments of the logical form of the sentence uttered, and other propositions conveyed, which are implicatures. A further fundamental assumption of relevance theory is that linguistically encoded meaning radically underdetermines the content that a speaker intends to convey. Much research has focused on investigating this linguistic underdetermination and on developing accounts of the interpretation of particular linguistic items and types of utterances. Specific areas of research include lexical pragmatics; figurative speech, including metaphor and irony; the interpretation of discourse connectives and linguistic items that have non-truth-conditional meaning; and the interpretation of logical linguistic items such as and, if . . . then, and negation. Turning briefly to the history of the field: relevance theory is grounded in the philosopher Paul Grice’s work on meaning and conversation, and the theoretical advances of the cognitive revolution in linguistics and psychology. It was initially developed by Dan Sperber and Deirdre Wilson in the late 1970s and 1980s, and has been one of the leading pragmatic theories since then. Both Sperber and Wilson continue to be active in developing the theory. Other key contributors include Diane Blakemore, who introduced the notion of procedural meaning, and Robyn Carston, who is best known for her work on the semantics/pragmatics interface and linguistic underdeterminacy. Relevance theory has contributed considerably to the emerging fields of experimental and developmental pragmatics, and it is in dialogue with philosophy of language.

scholarly journals The Pragmatic Analysis of the American TV Series’ Humorous Dialogues Based on the Perspective of Relevance Theory—Take the Example of the 2 Broken Girls

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 594
Author(s):  
Xiao Tang ◽  
Xin Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Relevance Theory ◽  
Pragmatic Analysis

<p><em>In this paper, we analyze the pragmatic analysis of the humorous dialogues of American TV series.</em><em> </em><em>And </em><em>b</em><em>ased on the theory of relevance theory, this paper analyzes and studies the dialogue in the TV series </em><em>“</em><em>broken sisters</em><em>”</em><em>, which aims to improve the understanding of American TV series.</em></p>

Pragmatic Analysis of the Particle ʁadɪ in Najdi Arabic

2015 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 81 ◽  
Author(s):  
Murdhy R. Al-Shamari
Keyword(s):  
General Framework ◽  
Relevance Theory ◽  
Conclusive Evidence ◽  
Propositional Content ◽  
Positive Evidence ◽  
Pragmatic Analysis ◽  
Najdi Arabic ◽  
Maxim Of Quality

<p>The ultimate goal of this paper is to investigate the pragmatic use of the particle ʁadɪ in Najdi Arabic. To do just this, both Grice’s Theory of Conversation and the Relevance Theory (RT) are used. In addition to indicating the speaker’s personal certainty of his/her utterance, ʁadɪ is assumed to encode the speaker’s lack of positive evidence to confirm the propositional content of his/her utterance, nonetheless. For Grice, ʁadɪ generates an implicature due to flouting the maxim of Quality ‘Try to make your contribution one that is true’. As a result, the hearer does not repose the speaker’s confidence of his/her utterance. Differently, for RT, ʁadɪ manifests a procedural meaning. This type of meaning guides the hearer not to rely heavily on the speaker’s own certainty which is, in principle, driven by anecdotal (nor conclusive) evidence. Additionally, this paper concludes that ʁadɪ fares better within the general framework of RT which provides a more robust account of its semantic import and pragmatic usage.</p>

Constraining Explicit and Implicit Content by Means of a Norwegian Scalar Particle

2000 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 115-162 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thorstein Fretheim
Keyword(s):  
Scalar Particle ◽  
Relevance Theory ◽  
Lexical Entry ◽  
Strict Sense ◽  
Truth Conditions ◽  
Pragmatic Analysis ◽  
Linguistic Code ◽  
The One ◽  
Lack Of Commitment ◽  
Inferential Processing

This study is a semantic and pragmatic analysis of the Norwegian right-detached particle så, which occurs exclusively with sentence fragments. The framework of description is relevance theory, a cognitively based theory of communication whose objective is to account for how we are able to understand utterances and to make ourselves understood, in spite of the fact that the linguistic code that we use vastly underdetermines what we mean, and even what we say in the strict sense (truth conditions). It is argued that så encodes a procedure for the addressee to follow in his inferential processing of the linguistic signal. The lexical entry for så contains an instruction to the addressee to contextually activate one or more positive propositions which resemble the one asserted by the utterance of the så-fragment, and to arrange them mentally on a scale whose lower bound is represented by the så-fragment proposition. The speaker implicitly communicates her lack of commitment to the more highly ranked propositions on the scale. The principle behind the scalar ranking is argued to be highly context-dependent.

scholarly journals Pemaknaan Semula Sinonim Leksikal “Nepotisme” Berteraskan Data Korpus: Analisis Pragmatik/Synonym Meaning-making of Lexical “Nepotism” Based on Corpus Data: Pragmatic Analysis

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nurul Aida Abdullah ◽  
Muhammad Zaid Daud
Keyword(s):  
Meaning Making ◽  
Lexical Semantics ◽  
High Reliability ◽  
Relevance Theory ◽  
Pragmatic Analysis ◽  
Corpus Data ◽  
Changing Times ◽  
Cross Reference

In the field of lexical semantics, synonym is one of the aspect that can classify some words that brings a same meaning. However, as a result of changing times and technology, some lexical generally has specific synonyms meaning-making as classified in lexicography also can have addition or abortion of the lexical equivalent. Therefore, this study, fully in qualitative form, was performed by applying text anylisis based on corpus data such as Pangkalan Data Korpus Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka and Facebook. This study has analyzed the meaning-making for the synonym of “nepotism” based on the corpus data. In lexicography terms, lexical “nepotism” has a synonym meaning with lexical “cronyism” as both of these lexicals refer “an act or policy that concern or exaggerate their own relatives and friends” and “a policy that puts priority or concern more to their closed friends in the inauguration of a ministry, giving a project and others.” This synonym meaning-making has been applied into an authoritative theory of Bridging Cross Reference (BCR) by Kempson (1986) and Relevance Theory (RT) by Sperber and Wilson (1986; 1995). This make the meaning-making for the synonym lexical can be answered with high reliability. In conclusion, the findings of this study shows lexical ‘kabel’ or ‘cable’ is an additional synonym lexical with lexical ‘nepotism’ and ‘cronyism.’

scholarly journals The Pragmatic Analysis of Gurage Riddle

IJOHMN ◽  
2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Data Gathering ◽  
Sampling Technique ◽  
Relevance Theory ◽  
Cultural Knowledge ◽  
Local People ◽  
Primary Data ◽  
Great Role ◽  
Purposive Sampling ◽  
Pragmatic Analysis ◽  
House Building

This paper is based on a pragmatic analysis of Gurage riddles that lay an important role in enlightening both children and adults as well. In line with this, it aimed to investigate how Gurage people discuss pragmatic discourses and introduce them into society over riddles. The data were collected through interviews from the local people and documents. The document -‘Yegurage Wemaka’ from which fourteen riddles were collected for analysis was the primary data gathering tool for the study. A purposive sampling technique was employed to choose the informants and the document which clearly contains Gurage riddles. The collected riddles were clustered according to their theme and grammatically founded meaning, and they are transcribed into alphabetic script since they were in Ethiopic scripts. Then, the pragmatic roles of the collected data were analyzed qualitatively from the perspectives of Relevance theory hence, the study focused on the interpretive aspects of riddles. The finding showed that pragmatically Gurage riddles play a great role to promote the culture of ‘Enset’ as the main source of food and its production, to introduce the materials that are used in their day to day life and way of house building (folk materials), to promote Gurage people’s transportation system and infrastructures, to show as the coffee ceremony is the main social coexistence, to promote the culture of Gurage people agriculture, death, and destruction. Finally, it also found out that context and cultural knowledge play a major in interpreting and understanding Gurage riddles.

scholarly journals A Pragmatic Analysis of Flirtations and Their Functions in Characterization in Gone with the Wind: A Case Study of Scarlett

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 44
Author(s):  
Xiaoqin Wu
Keyword(s):  
Literary Criticism ◽  
Relevance Theory ◽  
Conversational Implicature ◽  
Gone With The Wind ◽  
Cooperative Principle ◽  
Successful Communication ◽  
Pragmatic Analysis ◽  
Social Causes

Scarlett O’Hara in Gone with the Wind has left a deep impression for her coping attitude towards romance, marriage and business. It is interesting that these three aspects of her life are more or less related to her flirtations with men. The characteristic language in those flirtations makes a perfect material for her personality analysis. In this paper, the flirtations by Scarlett in Gone with the Wind is analyzed in the framework of the conversational implicature and relevance theory with an aim to demonstrate how such violations of cooperative principle function in the characterization of the protagonist as well as the development of plot and theme. Ultimately this paper is to illustrate how such pragmatic analysis may contribute to literary criticism. Flirtation is the explicit violation of cooperative principle under which a traditionally successful communication is yielded. However, a large number of successful communications have also been found although they violate this principle, especially in literary works. Such violations are ideal materials to study the personalities of communicators. Through a detailed analysis of four classic violations of maxims, Scarlett’s personality in Gone with the Wind is scrutinized, social causes of such personality are explained and the novelist’s intention to promote women consciousness and independence is discovered.

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