scholarly journals The role of Gricean determinacy and the strength condition in the relevance theory for interpreting implicatures

2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Miquel Company
Keyword(s):  
Relevance Theory ◽  
Strength Condition

scholarly journals Makna Ujaran Implisit dalam Vlog Mat Luthfi: Analisis Teori Relevans

Jurnal Bahasa ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 203-230
Author(s):  
Julaina Nopiah ◽  
◽  
Nur Maizatul Maisarah Nasrong
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Study ◽  
Relevance Theory ◽  
Research Data ◽  
Video Data ◽  
Cognitive Effects ◽  
Library Research ◽  
Correct Understanding

This study researches the meanings of implicit utterances in Mat Luthfi’s vlog. This qualitative study employs relevance theory, a linguistics-based theory proposed by Sperber and Wilson drawn from the discipline of pragmatics. This theory foregrounds three main concepts comprising the role of context, cognitive effects and processing efforts. The research data consists of implicit dialogue uttered by characters in the video. Data were identified, transcribed, and subsequently analysed based on Relevance Theory. Library research was also used to further explore the implicit and Relevance Theory-based expressions. The findings show that there are ten utterances in the vlogs with implicit elements. These in turn indicate that the speaker wished to convey specific messages to listeners. This study explains that in the Malay community, utterings are various in meaning and are not merely confined to their literal meanings for correct understanding and interpretation. Hence, the meaning of an utterance is more easily understood when interpreted using the Relevance Theory.

Translation of strategic ambiguity: A relevance-theoretic analysis

2018 ◽  
Vol 54 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-35 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rasheed S. Al-Jarrah ◽  
Ahmad M. Abu-Dalu ◽  
Hisham Obiedat
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Ambiguity Resolution ◽  
Contextual Information ◽  
Relevance Theory ◽  
Original Text ◽  
Theoretic Analysis ◽  
Strategic Ambiguity ◽  
The One ◽  
Point Of Departure

AbstractThe purpose of our current research is to see how Relevance Theory can handle one specific translation problem, namely strategic ambiguous structures. Concisely, we aim to provide a conceptual framework as to how the translator should cope with a pervasive ambiguity problem at the discoursal level. The point of departure from probably all previous models of analysis is that a relevance-theoretic analysis would, we believe, require that a “good” translation benotthe one that representsan interpretationof the text, but the one which leaves the door open for all interpretations which the original text provides evidence for. Hence,the role of translator is not to ‘interpret’ but to ‘translate’. If this is true, ambiguity resolution should not be a viable alternative. In other words, what the translator should do is empower the audience with all it takes to let them work out all the explicatures (linguistically inferred meanings) and entertain themselves with the implicatures (contextually inferred meanings) of the original. Direct Translation, along the lines laid down by Gutt (1991/2000), is the method of translation which can, we believe, bring about the desired results because “it tries to provide readers with contextual information that enables them to draw their own inferences” (Smith 2000: 92).

scholarly journals How do the Questions Asked Affect Suspects’ Perceptions of the Interviewer’s Prior Knowledge?

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meghana Srivatsav ◽  
Timothy John Luke ◽  
Pär Anders Granhag ◽  
Aldert Vrij
Keyword(s):  
Prior Knowledge ◽  
Prior Information ◽  
Relevance Theory ◽  
Related Topic ◽  
Underlying Mechanisms ◽  
Interview Transcript ◽  
Different Levels

The aim of this study was to understand if guilty suspects’ perceptions regarding the prior information or evidence held by the interviewer against the suspect could be influenced through the content of the investigative questions. To test this idea, we explored three question-phrasing factors that we labeled as Topic Discussion (if a specific crime-related topic was discussed or not), Specificity (different levels of crime-related details included in the questions) and Stressor (emphasis on the importance of the specific crime-related detail in the questions). The three factors were chosen based on relevance theory, a psycholinguistic theory that explores how people draw inferences from the communicated content. Participants (N= 370) assumed the role of the suspect and read a crime narrative and an interview transcript based on the suspect’s activities. After reading the narrative and the transcripts, participants responded to scales that measured their perception of interviewer’s prior knowledge (PIK) regarding the suspects’ role in the crime, based on the questions posed by the interviewer in the transcripts. Of the three factors tested, we found that questioning about a specific crime-related topic (Topic Discussion) increased their PIK. This study is the first to explore the underlying mechanisms of how suspects draw inferences regarding the interviewer’s prior knowledge through the content of the investigative questions adopting concepts of psycholinguistic theory.

Proceduralism and implicatures in dialogue

2012 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 122-139
Author(s):  
Luciana Garbayo
Keyword(s):  
Relevance Theory ◽  
Discourse Ethics ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Conversational Implicatures ◽  
Moral Point ◽  
Moral Point Of View ◽  
Moral Strangers ◽  
Bounded Reasoning

This article aims at discussing some of the problems for the construction of a shared moral point of view in dialogical context, through a revision of both Habermas’ proceduralistic discourse ethics and Grice’s pragmatist conversational implicatures project. I claim that a) by discounting the undue idealization of both projects, supported by their Kantian underpinnings, and b) by refreshing them with a consequentialist approach to rationality in a fallibilistic bounded reasoning approach, one could achieve a more realistic understanding of the dialogical problems between moral strangers. By following such a revision, I suggest to be then possible to operate c) a reversal of the principle of rational cooperation in Grice, in convergence with Sperber & Wilson’s relevance theory, while also considering the role of other additional mechanisms in interaction, such as empathy (in Alvin Goldman’s sense). These modifications result in a fallibilistic understanding of the process of the dialogical construction of a shared moral point of view among moral strangers, with the aid of a non-idealized use of procedures and implicatures.

The principle of relevance in the light of cooperation and trust

2012 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 483-504 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cristián Santibañez
Keyword(s):  
Relevance Theory ◽  
Full Understanding ◽  
Collective Intention ◽  
The Core

The principle of relevance of Sperber and Wilson (1995) underestimates the role of cooperation, and the theory’s inclination toward an individual intentionality is problematic. These are two of the critical observations that this paper introduces and discusses. Through a constant counterpoint with the aforementioned authors, the core arguments of their theory are analyzed in each section of this paper. The discussion will allow us to observe why it is necessary to include the notions of cooperation and collective intention in the explanation of the relevance theory and, at the same time, the concept of trust. Finally, it is also important to stress the distinction between the informative and argumentative conversational modes to achieve a full understanding of relevance.

scholarly journals Argumentation, Relevance Theory and persuasion

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 219-242 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olivia Rohan ◽  
Ryoko Sasamoto ◽  
Rebecca Jackson
Keyword(s):  
Relevance Theory ◽  
Theoretic Approach ◽  
Argumentative Discourse

Abstract This paper presents an application of Relevance Theory (Sperber and Wilson, 1995) to pictures by studying the role that weak implicatures may play in the persuasiveness of multimodal argumentative discourse. We take a relevance-theoretic approach to the discussion of visual and multimodal argumentation with a particular focus on the role of onomatopoeia. To examine the possible mechanism by which persuasion operates through onomatopoeia, we analyse a corpus of Japanese-style comics (manga), where visuals and verbal text interact to convey onomatopoeia. We argue that the use of onomatopoeia in manga contributes to the recovery of weak implicatures which, in turn, helps to reinforce the persuasiveness of the communicated messages in the examples analysed.

scholarly journals SEMANTICS AND PRAGMATICS OF VERBAL ASPECTUALITY IN ENGLISH AND RUSSIAN DISCOURSES

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 59-64
Author(s):  
E. V. Limarova ◽  
E. E. Sokolova
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Linguistics ◽  
Relevance Theory ◽  
Contextual Analysis ◽  
Symbolic Logic ◽  
Scientific Interest ◽  
Gone With The Wind ◽  
Tense And Aspect ◽  
Conceptual Organization ◽  
Semantics And Pragmatics

The relevance of the proposed article stems from the scientific interest in investigation of different means of conceptual organization of knowledge in the process of production and interpretation of English and Russian utterances. Thus, it aims at establishing the role of aspect in English and Russian discourse through interpreting aspectual situations which are analyzed at the level of sentences and textual fragments borrowed from two translation versions of M. Mitchell’ s novel “Gone with the Wind”.The theoretical framework for the research is provided by Relevance theory as developed in recent works on procedural meaning to handle H. Reichenbach’s symbolic logic for tense and aspect and Relevance theory proposed by D. Sperber and D. Wilson. We suggest that the following means are involved in expressing the type of action: a combination of lexical and grammatical properties of the verb; grammatical forms of the verb; meanings of time adverbs. These means are capable of characterizing R, a conceptual notion, which can be inferred by contextual assumptions.Systematization of referential relations among the above mentioned components taking into account the influence of pragmatic interpretive component and contextual analysis of informational organization of discourse proves the hypothesis that referential characteristics being combined contribute to the description of a discourse situation as stative, habitual, inchoative or punctual.The article will be interesting for researchers in contrastive and cognitive linguistics.

Visual and Multimodal Communication

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles Forceville
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Linguistics ◽  
Relevance Theory ◽  
Multimodal Communication ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Successful Communication ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Verbal Messages ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Relevance Principle

Successful communication requires optimal relevance to a target audience. Relevance theory (RT) provides an excellent model based on this insight, but the impact of the theory has until now been restricted due to an almost exclusive focus on spoken face-to-face communication. Visual and Multimodal Communication: Applying the Relevance Principle is the first book to systematically demonstrate how RT can fulfill its promise to develop into an inclusive theory of communication. In this book, Charles Forceville refines and adapts RT’s original claims to show its applicability to static visuals and multimodal discourses in popular culture genres. Using colorful examples, he explains how RT can be expanded and adapted to accommodate mass-communicative visual and visual-plus-verbal messages. Forceville addresses issues such as the difference between drawing prospective addressees’ attention to a message and persuading them to accept it; the thorny continuum from implicit to explicit information; and the role of genre. Case studies of pictograms, advertisements, cartoons, and comics provide contemporary and accessible examples of the importance of genre and of how the RT model can be connected to other approaches. By expanding the application of relevance theory to include mass-communicative messages, Visual and Multimodal Communication reintroduces a central framework of cognitive linguistics and pragmatics to a new audience and paves the way for an inclusive theory of communication.

Cognitive Constraints on the Visual Arts: An Empirical Study of the Role of Perceived Intentions in Appreciation Judgements

2011 ◽  
Vol 11 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 115-136 ◽  
Author(s):  
Justin L. Barrett ◽  
Jean-Luc Jucker
Keyword(s):  
Visual Arts ◽  
Relevance Theory ◽  
Fine Art ◽  
Art Appreciation ◽  
Cognitive Approach ◽  
Cognitive Constraints ◽  
Symbolic Communication ◽  
Works Of Art ◽  
Wide Range

AbstractWhat influences people’s appreciation of works of art? In this paper, we provide a new cognitive approach to this big question, and the first empirical results in support of it. As a work of art typically does not activate intuitive cognition for functional artefacts, it is represented as an instance of non-verbal symbolic communication. By application of Sperber and Wilson’s (1986/1995) Relevance Theory of communication, we hypothesize that understanding the artist’s intention plays a crucial role in intuitive art appreciation judgements. About 60 works of fine art, representing a wide range of periods, genres and styles, were selected in the permanent exhibitions at Tate Britain in London, and rated by more than 500 visitors for goodness and understanding of the artist’s intention. Results suggest that works of art whose artist’s intention is easy to understand tend to be preferred over those with more obscure intentions, even when controlling for familiarity effects.

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