The speaker’s derivational intention
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Thorstein Fretheim
Abstract
Adopting the basic tenets of relevance theory, Powell (2010) introduces the concept of derivational intention as something separate from a speaker’s informative intention. The derivational intention of a speaker is an intention concerning the pragmatically inferred route that the hearer should take in order to recognize the speaker’s informative intention. This paper addresses what can happen when a speaker’s derivational intention is at odds with a particular piece of procedural information encoded by some linguistic expression, with the conceptual semantics of a lexical item, or with the procedural meaning of an intonation pattern employed by the speaker. The procedural meaning of one expression may override that of a co-occurring expression when there is a conflict between them.
Abstract
Adopting the basic tenets of relevance theory, Powell (2010) introduces the concept of derivational intention as something separate from a speaker’s informative intention. The derivational intention of a speaker is an intention concerning the pragmatically inferred route that the hearer should take in order to recognize the speaker’s informative intention. This paper addresses what can happen when a speaker’s derivational intention is at odds with a particular piece of procedural information encoded by some linguistic expression, with the conceptual semantics of a lexical item, or with the procedural meaning of an intonation pattern employed by the speaker. The procedural meaning of one expression may override that of a co-occurring expression when there is a conflict between them.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
-
Introduction
- Three decades of relevance theory 1
-
Part I: Issues on procedural meaning and procedural analyses
- The speaker’s derivational intention 33
- Cracking the chestnut 59
- Reference assignment in pronominal argument languages 81
- Conceptual and procedural information for verb tense disambiguation 103
-
Part II: Discourse issues
- Relevance theory and contextual sources-centred analysis of irony 147
- Distinguishing rhetorical from ironical questions 173
-
Part III: Interpretive processes
- Relevance theory, epistemic vigilance and pragmatic competence 193
- Evidentials, genre and epistemic vigilance 239
-
Part IV: Rhetorical and perlocutionary effects of communication
- Rhetoric and cognition 261
- Perlocutionary effects and relevance theory 287
-
Conclusion
- Some directions for future research in relevance-theoretic pragmatics 307
- Contributors 321
- Index 325
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
-
Introduction
- Three decades of relevance theory 1
-
Part I: Issues on procedural meaning and procedural analyses
- The speaker’s derivational intention 33
- Cracking the chestnut 59
- Reference assignment in pronominal argument languages 81
- Conceptual and procedural information for verb tense disambiguation 103
-
Part II: Discourse issues
- Relevance theory and contextual sources-centred analysis of irony 147
- Distinguishing rhetorical from ironical questions 173
-
Part III: Interpretive processes
- Relevance theory, epistemic vigilance and pragmatic competence 193
- Evidentials, genre and epistemic vigilance 239
-
Part IV: Rhetorical and perlocutionary effects of communication
- Rhetoric and cognition 261
- Perlocutionary effects and relevance theory 287
-
Conclusion
- Some directions for future research in relevance-theoretic pragmatics 307
- Contributors 321
- Index 325
