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Pragmatics and mindreading: Forward and backward inferences in shared intentional contexts

  • Marco Mazzone

    Marco Mazzone is Associate Professor of Philosophy of Language at the University of Catania. His current research interests focus on the neurocognition of linguistic processes, cognitive processes in pragmatic comprehension, theory of intentional action and mind-reading, the nature and structure of conceptual knowledge. He has recently published in Journal of Pragmatics, International Review of Pragmatics, Review of Philosophy and Psychology, Philosophical Psychology, Philosophical Explorations, and Frontiers in Psychology.

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Published/Copyright: September 3, 2015
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Abstract

The general hypothesis discussed here is that pragmatic understanding is embedded in a more general understanding of action. To this purpose I first summarize ideas from Grice, Levinson and relevance theorists, all contributing to the view that utterance understanding is based on inferential recognition of the speakers’ communicative goals, and that this process may be affected backwards by expectations about non-communicative goals. I also provide reasons to think that the double dynamic of forward and backward inferences described by relevance theorists is present in action execution and observation as well, and that we construe shared intentional contexts which automatically mesh ours and others’ goals. Finally, the suggestion is made that, in order to account for the full contribution of mindreading to utterance understanding, Relevance Theory needs to consider not only the comprehension procedure in itself, but also the way in which it interacts with other external mechanisms.

About the author

Marco Mazzone

Marco Mazzone is Associate Professor of Philosophy of Language at the University of Catania. His current research interests focus on the neurocognition of linguistic processes, cognitive processes in pragmatic comprehension, theory of intentional action and mind-reading, the nature and structure of conceptual knowledge. He has recently published in Journal of Pragmatics, International Review of Pragmatics, Review of Philosophy and Psychology, Philosophical Psychology, Philosophical Explorations, and Frontiers in Psychology.

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Published Online: 2015-9-3
Published in Print: 2015-9-1

©2015 by De Gruyter Mouton

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