RELEVANCE THEORY

RELEVANCE THEORY

1. Dan Sperber and Deidre Wilson

   • we are cooperative because we have something to win
     • KNOWLEDGE
       • Degree of relevance equals
         • cognoscitive effects
         • progressing effort
         • this principal is universal and applies to all intentional speech acts of communication

2. the hearer will tend to select the interpretation

   • from the range of posible interpretations of the same utterance in the current context
     • hearers will normally be willing to devote extra cognitive effort
       • if they are going to get additional effects

3. 3 types of information

   • new but connected with what we have
     • the connection provoques more new information
       • EFFECTS CONTEXTUAL
         • Reinforce
         • contradict or weaken
   • accesible immediately
   • completely disconnected

4. Sub tasks in the overall comprehension process

   • a) construct appropriate hypotheses about explicit content
     • explicature
       • polisemous words
   • b) construt appropriate hypotheses about the intended contextual assumptions
     • implicated premises
   • c) construct an appropriate hypotheses about the intended contextual implications
     • implicated conclusions