Cover not available
Part of
Beyond Meaning
Edited by Elly Ifantidou, Louis de Saussure and Tim Wharton
[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 324] 2021
► pp. 11–28

Beyond meaningNN and ostension

Pragmatic inference in the wild

| University of Malta

Inferential pragmatics is typically considered to deal exclusively with meaning that has been overtly and intentionally communicated. This paper sets out to investigate whether this established domain of enquiry can be extended to include instances of information transmission that may not be characterised by an underlying communicative intention on the part of a stimulus producer. Adopting a relevance-theoretic perspective, I argue that this can indeed be done and show how it can be quite naturally accommodated in the framework. The upshot of my argumentation in this regard is that pragmatic inference has a central role to play in interpretation even beyond the confines of what has been traditionally viewed as communication proper.

Keywords: inferential pragmatics, relevance theory, ostension, meaningnn , non-intentional communication
Article outline
  • 1.Overtness and the domain of pragmatics
  • 2.Relevance theory
  • 3.Relevance and the interpretation of non-ostensive stimuli
    • 3.1Comprehension in the absence of ostension
    • 3.2The pragmatic processing of non-ostensive stimuli
  • 4.Pragmatics and the territory beyond meaning
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 10 November 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.324.c1
References
Assimakopoulos, Stavros
2017 “Relevance.” In The Routledge Handbook of Pragmatics, ed. by Anne Barron, Yueguo Gu, and Gerard Steen, 310‒322. London: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Beck, Hanno T
2007 “Comprehension Procedures and Non-communicative Utterances.” MS. Retrieved from: [URL].Google Scholar
Blakemore, Diane
1987 Semantic Constraints on Relevance. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Carston, Robyn
2012 “Relevance theory.” In The Routledge Companion to the Philosophy of Language, ed. by Gillian Russell, and Delia Graff Fara, 163‒176. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Davis, Wayne
1992 “Speaker Meaning.” Linguistics and Philosophy 15: 223‒253. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
de Saussure, Louis, and Tim Wharton
2019 “La notion de pertinence au défi des effets émotionnels [Relevance and emotional effects].” TIPA. Travaux interdisciplinaires sur la parole et le langage 35. Retrieved from: [URL].
Grice, H. Paul
1957 “Meaning.” Philosophical Review 66: 377‒388. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1969 “Utterer’s Meaning and Intention.” Philosophical Review 78: 147‒177. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1989 Studies in the Way of Words. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Haugh, Michael
2008 “Intention in Pragmatics.” Intercultural Pragmatics 5: 99‒110. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kolaiti, Patricia
2009 “The Limits of Expression: Language, Poetry, Thought.” PhD diss., University College London.Google Scholar
2019 The Limits of Expression: Language, Literature, Mind. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Levinson, Stephen C
1983 Pragmatics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Mey, Jacob L., and Mary Talbot
1988 “Computation and the Soul.” Journal of Pragmatics 12: 743‒789. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sperber, Dan, and Deirdre Wilson
1982 “Mutual Knowledge and Relevance in Theories of Comprehension.” In Mutual Knowledge, ed. by Neil V. Smith, 61‒85. London: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Sperber, Dan.
1994 “The Modularity of Thought and the Epidemiology of Representations." In Mapping the Mind: Domain Specificity in Cognition and Culture, ed. by Lawrence A. Hirschfeld & Susan A. Gelman, 39–67. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/ DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sperber, Dan, and Deirdre Wilson
1995 Relevance: Communication and Cognition. 2nd ed. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
1996 “Fodor’s Frame Problem and Relevance Theory.” Behavioral and Brain Sciences 19: 530‒532. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1997 “Remarks on Relevance Theory and the Social Sciences.” Multilingua 16: 145‒151. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2002 “Pragmatics, Modularity and Mind-Reading.” Mind and Language 17: 3‒23. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2015 “Beyond Speaker’s Meaning.” Croatian Journal of Philosophy 15: 117‒149.Google Scholar
Verschueren, Jef
1999 Understanding Pragmatics. London: Hodder Arnold.Google Scholar
Wharton, Tim
2008 “ ‘MeaningNN’ and ‘Showing’: Gricean Intentions and Relevance-Theoretic Intentions.” Intercultural Pragmatics 5: 131‒152. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wharton, Tim, and Claudia Strey
2019 “Slave to the Passions: Making Emotions Relevant.” In Relevance: Pragmatics and Interpretation, ed. by Kate Scott, Billy Clark, and Robyn Carston, 253‒267. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wilson, Deirdre
1993 “Relevance and Understanding.” Pragmalingüística 1: 335‒366.Google Scholar
2018 “Relevance Theory and Literary Interpretation.” In Reading Beyond the Code: Literature and Relevance Theory, ed. by Terence Cave, and Deirdre Wilson, 185‒204. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Wilson, Deirdre, and Robyn Carston
2019 “Pragmatics and the Challenge of ‘Non-propositional’ Effects.” Journal of Pragmatics 145: 31‒38. https://doi.org/ DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wilson, Deirdre, and Dan Sperber
1985 “On Choosing the Context for Utterance-Interpretation.” In Foregrounding Background, ed. by Jens Allwood, and Erland Hjelmquist, 51‒64. Lund: Doxa.Google Scholar
1993 “Linguistic Form and Relevance.” Lingua 90: 1‒25. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2004 “Relevance Theory.” In The Handbook of Pragmatics, ed. by Lawrence R. Horn, and Gregory Ward, 607‒632. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Yus, Francisco
2015 Relevance Theory. In The Oxford Handbook of Linguistic Analysis. 2nd ed., ed. by Bendt Heine, and Heiko Narrog, 642‒662. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 2 other publications

Assimakopoulos, Stavros
2021. Interpretation, relevance and the ideological effects of discursive practice. Pragmatics & Cognition 28:2 ► pp. 394 ff. DOI logo
Yus, Francisco
2023. Relevance Theory, Humour and Internet Communication. In Pragmatics of Internet Humour, ► pp. 9 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 28 april 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.