Signalling the loopholes and spreading the trampoline: a relevance-theoretic perspective on ELF communication

Elena Salakhyan

doi:10.1515/jelf-2025-2003

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Signalling the loopholes and spreading the trampoline: a relevance-theoretic perspective on ELF communication

Elena Salakhyan

Published/Copyright: April 7, 2025

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From the journal Journal of English as a Lingua Franca Volume 13 Issue 2

Abstract

The paper examines English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) communication from a relevance-theoretic perspective. Communication in English as a Lingua Franca is a type of interaction in which multilingual speakers use a variety of linguistic and non-linguistic means to achieve mutual intelligibility and maximum communicative effectiveness. The interaction of the ad hoc and dynamic conditions results in the development of properties that become typical for communicative encounters, where successful communication and mutual intelligibility are the goals. ELF interaction is thus characterized by the presence of properties relating to communicative success and mutual understanding, often making these communicative encounters ‘distinct’. The paper argues, drawing on spontaneous spoken production of Ukrainian, Russian and Polish speakers of English, that ‘distinct’ properties of ELF interactions emerge due to the realization of the Principle of Relevance. If the Principle of Relevance guides speakers in their search for appropriate communicative strategies and means of expression, then this supports the view that communication in English as a Lingua Franca follows the principles of any human communication and contributes to conceptualizing ELF as natural human communication. As non-native speakers of English understand the nature of ELF interactions and its scope, namely participants’ limited communicative resources and mismatches in the common ground, they explicate and simplify their utterances, switch to other languages shared by the hearers, and accommodate to the hearers in terms of vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation. Doing so, speakers intuitively follow the Cognitive Principle of Relevance and the relevance-theoretic production strategy, allowing their interlocutors to process utterances and make inferences at low costs. The emergence of ELF-specific features, relating to achieving mutual intelligibility and maximum communicative effectiveness, such as the explicitness of proposition, accommodation, paraphrase and translanguaging are explained in terms of explicatures in the areas of free enrichment, reference assignment, disambiguation and ad hoc concept construction that contribute to providing a comprehensible input to the hearer. The paper is exploratory in suggesting directions that ELF research could further pursue.

Аннотация

В статье рассматривается коммуникация на английском языке как лингва-франка с точки зрения теории релевантности. Коммуникация на английском языке как лингва-франка – это тип взаимодействия, при котором многоязычные носители используют различные языковые и неязыковые средства для достижения взаимной понятности и максимальной коммуникативной эффективности. Взаимодействие спонтанных и динамических условий приводит к развитию свойств, которые становятся типичными для коммуникативных встреч, где целями являются успешная коммуникация и взаимная понятность. Таким образом, данное взаимодействие характеризуется наличием свойств, связанных с коммуникативным успехом и взаимопониманием, что часто делает эти коммуникативные встречи «особенными». В статье утверждается, опираясь на спонтанную устную речь украинских, русских и польских носителей английского языка, что «особенные» свойства взаимодействий в условиях лингва-франка возникают благодаря реализации принципа релевантности. Если принцип релевантности направляет говорящих в поиске соответствующих коммуникативных стратегий и средств выражения, то это подтверждает точку зрения, что общение на английском языке как лингва-франка следует принципам любого человеческого общения и способствует концептуализации английского языка в условиях лингва-франкa как естественного человеческого общения. Поскольку люди, не являющиеся носителями английского языка, понимают природу общения в условиях лингва-франкa и масштабы, а именно ограниченные коммуникативные ресурсы участников и несовпадения в мировоззрении, они объясняют и упрощают свои высказывания, переключаются на другие языки, которыми владеют слушатели, и приспосабливаются к слушателям с точки зрения лексики, грамматики и произношения. Поступая так, говорящие интуитивно следуют когнитивному принципу релевантности и релевантно-теоретической стратегии производства речи, позволяя своим собеседникам обрабатывать высказывания и делать выводы с низкими затратами. Появление особенностей, связанных с достижением взаимной понятности и максимальной коммуникативной эффективности, таких как ясность высказывания, аккомодация, парафраз и транслингвизм, объясняется с точки зрения экспликатур в областях свободного обогащения, формирования референции, устранения неоднозначности и построения специальной концепции для данной цели способствуют предоставлению доступных входных данных слушателю. Статья является исследовательской и предлагает направления, в которых исследования английского языка как лингва-франка могли бы развиваться в дальнейшем.

Keywords: accommodation; ad hoc concept construction; explicature; (free) enrichment; Relevance Theory; translanguaging

Kлючевые слова: теория релевантности; экспликатура; (свободное) обогащение; аккомодация; построение концепций; транслингвизм

Corresponding author: Elena Salakhyan, Anglistisches Seminar/Department of English, Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg, Kettengasse 12, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany, E-mail: ui265@uni-heidelberg.de

Acknowledgments

I am grateful to reviewers for their insightful suggestions to improve this paper. All remaining limitations are my own.

Appendix: Transcription conventions

<break/>	short pause (unmeasured)
<unclear>	unintelligible passage
<quote>	reported speech
underlining	used to highlight parts of the transcript discussed in the text
<NLU>	native/first language Ukrainian
<FLG>	foreign language German
L1	first language

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Published Online: 2025-04-07

Published in Print: 2024-09-25

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Articles in the same Issue

https://doi.org/10.1515/jelf-2025-2003

Keywords for this article

accommodation; ad hoc concept construction; explicature; (free) enrichment; Relevance Theory; translanguaging