Relevance
Relevance
Underdeterminacy of Meaning
"Sperber and Wilson were among the first to explore the idea that
linguistically encoded material in an utterance typically falls short of
the proposition expressed by the speaker. In such cases, it is not
clear whether 'what is said' is what the words say or the proposition
the speaker expressed. Sperber and Wilson, therefore, coined the
term explicature for assumptions explicitly communicated by an
utterance.
"A lot of recent work in relevance theory and elsewhere has focused
on the consequences of this linguistic underdeterminacy of meaning.
One recent development is an account of loose use, hyperbole,
and metaphor in terms of occasion-specific broadening and
narrowing of the concept expressed in a word.
"Sperber and Wilson also have a radical theory of irony, partly put
forward before the publication of Relevance. The claim is that an
ironic utterance is one which (1) achieves relevance through
semblance to a thought or another utterance (i.e. is 'interpretive');
(2) expresses a dissociative attitude toward the target thought or
utterance, and (3) is not explicitly marked as interpretive or
dissociative.
"Other aspects of relevance theory's account of communication
include its theory of context selection, and of the place of
indeterminacy in communication. These aspects of the account rest
on the notions of manifestness and mutual manifestness."