Understanding Relevance Theory and Pragmatic Interpretation

Comprehension According to Relevance Theory

There are three questions we must answer to identify a speaker’s intended meaning:

• (a) What was the intended explicit content?
• (b) What was the intended implicit content?
• (c) What was the intended context the speaker expects us to access to obtain (a) and (b)?

We require contextual information to determine the intended explicit interpretation of an utterance.

To answer these questions, we follow several steps:

1. Linguistic Decoding: The language module apprehends a grammatical sequence.
2. Logical Form Identification: Determine the logical form of the utterance (no context required).
3. Inferential Pragmatic Enrichment: Context is required for the following:
   • Reference Assignment: Identifying the referents for pronouns.
   • Disambiguation: Selecting the intended meaning of polysemous words.
   • Free Enrichment: Filling missing gaps based on context.
   • Conceptual Narrowing: Communicating a concept narrower than the literal definition.
4. Proposition Expression: Finally, we determine the proposition expressed by the utterance, which may be an explicature (explicit) or an implicature (implicit).

Conceptual Adjustment

In most contexts, words are not intended to mean exactly what is found in a dictionary. There are two primary ways words are adjusted:

• Conceptual Broadening: The speaker intends to communicate a concept broader than the literal definition (e.g., "La habitación es una cuadra"—the room is not literally a stable, but is dirty).
• Conceptual Narrowing: The speaker intends to communicate a concept narrower than the literal definition.

Metaphorical Processes

Metaphors often involve both processes. For example: "I am delighted with my daughter. She is a princess."

• Broadening: The concept [princess] is broadened to include non-royal women who are pretty or charming.
• Narrowing: The concept [princess] is narrowed to a specific sub-group of princesses who possess those charming traits.

The outcome of these operations is the proposition expressed by the utterance. When communicated, this is called an explicature; depending on the speaker's intention, it can also be an implicature.