Home Typographical iconicity and the communication of impressions: A relevance-theoretic perspective
Article
Licensed
Unlicensed Requires Authentication

Typographical iconicity and the communication of impressions: A relevance-theoretic perspective

  • Daniel William Pinder

    Daniel William Pinder is currently an independent researcher but is closely linked with Sheffield Hallam University in the UK, where he has experience teaching linguistics to undergraduate students and in 2019 he completed his PhD entitled “Poetic Effects and Visuospatial Form: A Relevance-Theoretic Perspective”. His main research interests lie within a cognitive-pragmatic approach to the analysis of literary texts, and he is particularly interested in the application of relevance theory within this context.

Published/Copyright: October 20, 2022

Abstract

This article studies the cognitive and communicative effects of typographical iconicity in poetry from the perspective of relevance theory. It argues that the visual aspect pertaining to an instance of typographical iconicity conveys a sensory impression, which perceptually resembles elements of the semantic material represented via the typographical iconicity’s lexical aspect. It is suggested that the non-propositional information relating to this impression can trigger the derivation of a wide array of weak implicatures which can combine to form an impressionistic and indeterminate cognitive state described within relevance theory as a poetic effect. Furthermore, since the added effort, which the typographical iconicity requires to be perceived and processed, is offset by the derived implicatures, the use of typographical iconicity may be said to produce an optimally relevant level of processing.

About the author

Daniel William Pinder

Daniel William Pinder is currently an independent researcher but is closely linked with Sheffield Hallam University in the UK, where he has experience teaching linguistics to undergraduate students and in 2019 he completed his PhD entitled “Poetic Effects and Visuospatial Form: A Relevance-Theoretic Perspective”. His main research interests lie within a cognitive-pragmatic approach to the analysis of literary texts, and he is particularly interested in the application of relevance theory within this context.

References

Alonso, Pilar. 2014. The role of cognitive coherence in non-expert processes of literary discourse reception. Journal of Literary Semantics 43(1). 1–23.10.1515/jls-2014-0001Search in Google Scholar

Blake, William. 1990. Songs of Innocence and of Experience (edited by R. Willmott). Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press.Search in Google Scholar

Blakemore, Diane. 2008. Apposition and affective communication. Language and Literature 17(1). 37–57.10.1177/0963947007085054Search in Google Scholar

Bohn, Willard. 1986, The Aesthetics of Visual Poetry 1914-1928. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Search in Google Scholar

Carston, Robyn. 2002. Thoughts and Utterances: The Pragmatics of Explicit Communication. Oxford: Blackwell.10.1002/9780470754603Search in Google Scholar

Carston, Robyn. 2018. Figurative language, mental imagery and pragmatics. Metaphor and Symbol 33. 198–217.10.1080/10926488.2018.1481257Search in Google Scholar

Cave, Terence & Deirdre Wilson (eds.). 2018. Reading Beyond the Code: Literature and Relevance Theory. Oxford: Oxford University Press.10.1093/oso/9780198794776.001.0001Search in Google Scholar

Clark, Billy, 2013. Relevance Theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9781139034104Search in Google Scholar

Cummings, E. E. 1991. r-p-o-p-h-e-s-s-a-g-r. In George James Firmage (ed.), Complete poems: 1904-1962 by E. E. Cummings, p. 396. New York: Liveright.Search in Google Scholar

De Brabanter, Philippe. 2010. Uttering sentences made up of words and gestures. In Belén Soria & Esther Romero (eds.), Explicit Communication: Robyn Carston’s Pragmatics, 199–216. Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan.10.1057/9780230292352_13Search in Google Scholar

Elleström, Lars. 2016. Visual iconicity in poetry: Replacing the notion of “Visual Poetry”. Orbis Litterarum 71(6). 437–472.10.1111/oli.12112Search in Google Scholar

Fodor, Jerry A. 1983. The Modularity of the Mind. Cambridge, MA.: MIT Press.10.7551/mitpress/4737.001.0001Search in Google Scholar

Furlong, Anne. 1996. Relevance Theory and Literary Interpretation. PhD Thesis, University of London.Search in Google Scholar

Furlong, Anne. 2014. Outsourcing: A relevance-theoretic account of the interpretation of theatrical texts. In Siobhan Chapman & Billy Clark (eds.), Pragmatic Literary Stylistics, 70–89. London: Palgrave.10.1057/9781137023278_5Search in Google Scholar

Furlong, Anne. 2020. The shared communicative act of theatrical texts in performance: A relevance theoretic approach. International Journal of Literary Linguistics 9(3). 1–23.10.15462/ijll.v9i3.121Search in Google Scholar

Green, Keith, 2001. Creative writing, language and evaluation. Working Papers on the Web 2. Available at: https://extra.shu.ac.uk/wpw/value/green.htm (accessed 9th April 2022).Search in Google Scholar

Grice, Herbert P. 1957. Meaning. The Philosophical Review 66. 377–388.10.2307/2182440Search in Google Scholar

Herbert, George. 2007. Easter Wings. In Helen Wilcox (ed.), The English Poems of George Herbert. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Search in Google Scholar

Herbert, George. 2007. The Altar. In Helen Wilcox (ed.), The English Poems of George Herbert. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Search in Google Scholar

Higashimori, Isao & Deirdre, Wilson. 1996. Questions on relevance. UCL Working Papers in Linguistics 8: 111:124. Digital version available at: https://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/PUB/WPL/96papers/higashi.pdf: 1–14 (accessed 9th April 2022 – page numbers for digital version used within this article).Search in Google Scholar

Higgins, Dick. 1987. Pattern Poetry: Guide to an Unknown Literature. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.Search in Google Scholar

Hiraga, Masako K. 2000. Iconicity as principle of composition and interpretation: A case study in Japanese short poems. In Patrizia Violi (ed.), Phonosymbolism and Poetic Language, 147–169.Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols.Search in Google Scholar

Hiraga, Masako K. 2005. Metaphor and Iconicty: A Cognitive Approach to Analyzing Texts. Houndsmills & New York: Palgrave MacMillan.10.1057/9780230510708Search in Google Scholar

Hollander, John, 1991. Types of Shape. New Haven and London: Yale University Press.Search in Google Scholar

Honegger, Urs. 2002. Wort und Bild in der visuellen Poesie des 20. Jh. Lizenziatsarbeit. Universität Zürich, Schweiz. Philosophische Fakultät. Available at: www.netzliteratur.net/honegger.htm (accessed April11th 2022).Search in Google Scholar

Jagoe, Caroline & Tim Wharton. 2021. Meaning non-verbally: The neglected corners of the bidimensional continuum communication in people with aphasia. Journal of Pragmatics 178. 21–30.10.1016/j.pragma.2021.02.027Search in Google Scholar

Kilyovski, Vakrilen. 2013. The nude, the grasshopper, and the poet-painter: A reading of E. E. Cummings’ “r-p-o-p-h-e-s-s-a-g-r”. Spring 20, E. E. Cummings Society. 99–109.Search in Google Scholar

Knowles, Kim, Anna Katharina Schaffner, Ulrich Weger & Andrew Michael Roberts. 2012. Reading space in visual poetry: New cognitive perspectives. Writing Technologies 4. 75–106.Search in Google Scholar

Menezes, Philadelpho. 1993. Brazilian Visual Poetry. Visible Language [Visual Poetry: An Anthology] 27(4). 394–409.Search in Google Scholar

Peirce, Charles S. 1955/1902. Logic as semiotic: Theory of signs. In Justus Buchler (ed.), Philosophical Writings of Peirce, 98–119. New York: Dover Publications.Search in Google Scholar

Pilkington, Adrian. 2000. Poetic Effects: A Relevance Theory Perspective. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.10.1075/pbns.75Search in Google Scholar

Pinder, Daniel William. 2019. Poetic Effects and Visuospatial Form: A relevance-theoretic perspective. PhD Thesis, Sheffield Hallam University.Search in Google Scholar

Pinder, Daniel William. 2021. Poetic effects and visuospatial form: A relevance-theoretic perspective. Journal of Pragmatics 178. 211–224.10.1016/j.pragma.2021.03.019Search in Google Scholar

Pinder, Daniel William. 2022. Line divisions as stylistic devices in poetry: Relevance, procedural encoding and ad hoc concepts. Journal of Pragmatics 190. 45–59.10.1016/j.pragma.2021.10.020Search in Google Scholar

Rohan, Olivia, Ryoko Sasamoto & Rebecca Jackson. 2018. Argumentation, relevance theory and persuasion: An analysis of onomatopoeia in Japanese publications using manga stylistics. International Review of Pragmatics 10. 219–242.10.1163/18773109-01002005Search in Google Scholar

Rohan, Olivia, Ryoko Sasamoto & Sharon O’Brien. 2021. Onomatopoeia: A relevance-based eye-tracking study of digital manga. Journal of Pragmatics 186. 60–72.10.1016/j.pragma.2021.09.018Search in Google Scholar

Sasamoto, Ryoko. 2019. Onomatopoeia and Relevance: Communication of Impressions via Sound. London: Palgrave MacMillan.10.1007/978-3-030-26318-8Search in Google Scholar

Sasamoto, Ryoko & Rebecca Jackson. 2016. Onomatopoeia – showing-word or saying-word? Relevance theory, lexis, and the communication of impressions. Lingua 175–176. 36–53.10.1016/j.lingua.2015.11.003Search in Google Scholar

Saussure, Ferdinand de. 2011/1916. Course in General Linguistics (trans. Wade Baskin; edited by Perry Meisel & Haun Saussy). New York: Columbia University Press.Search in Google Scholar

de Saussure, Louis & Tim Wharton. 2020. Relevance, effects and affect. International Review of Pragmatics 12(2). 183–205.10.1163/18773109-01202001Search in Google Scholar

Schmitz-Emans, Monika. 2020. Playing with forms and with concepts of ‘form’: proportion, symmetry, and seriality in modern visual poetry. European Review 29(2). 285–296.10.1017/S1062798720000423Search in Google Scholar

Scott, Kate & Rebecca Jackson. 2020. When EVERYTHING STANDS OUT, NOTHING Does. Typography, expectations and procedures. In Agnieszka Piskorska (ed.), Relevance Theory, Figuration, and Continuity in Pragmatics, 167–192. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.10.1075/ftl.8.06scoSearch in Google Scholar

Sebeok, Thomas A.. 2001. Signs: An Introduction to Semiotics (Second Edition). Toronto, Buffalo, London: University of Toronto Press.Search in Google Scholar

Sperber, Dan, Francesco Cara & Vittorio Girotto. 1995. Relevance theory explains the selection task. Cognition 57. 31–95.10.1016/0010-0277(95)00666-MSearch in Google Scholar

Sperber, Dan & Deirdre Wilson. 1986. Relevance: Communication and Cognition. Oxford: Blackwell.Search in Google Scholar

Sperber, Dan & Deirdre Wilson. 1995. Relevance: Communication and Cognition (2nd edn.). Oxford: Blackwell.Search in Google Scholar

Sperber, Dan & Deirdre Wilson. 2012. Introduction: Pragmatics. In Deirdre & Dan Sperber (eds.) Relevance and Meaning,1–28. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9781139028370Search in Google Scholar

Sperber, Dan & Deirdre Wilson. 2015. Beyond speaker’s meaning. Croatian Journal of Philosophy 15(44). 117–149.Search in Google Scholar

Wharton, Tim, 2003. Interjections, language and the ‘showing/saying’ continuum. Pragmatics & Cognition 11(1). 39–91.10.1075/pc.11.1.04whaSearch in Google Scholar

Wharton, Tim, 2006. The evolution of pragmatics. In Keith Brown (ed.), The Elsevier Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics, 338–345. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Elsevier.10.1016/B0-08-044854-2/04747-7Search in Google Scholar

Wharton, Tim. 2008. ‘Meaning’ and ‘showing’: Gricean intentions and relevance-theoretic intentions. Intercultural Pragmatics 5(2). 131–152.10.1515/IP.2008.008Search in Google Scholar

Wharton, Tim, 2009. Pragmatics and Non-Verbal Communication. Cambridge: CUP.10.1017/CBO9780511635649Search in Google Scholar

Wilson, Deirdre. 2018. Relevance theory and literary interpretation. In Terence Cave & Deirdre Wilson (eds.), Reading Beyond the Code: Literature and Relevance Theory, 185–204. Oxford: Oxford University Press.10.1093/oso/9780198794776.001.0001Search in Google Scholar

Wilson, Deirdre & Robyn Carston. 2019. Pragmatics and the challenge of ‘non-propositional’ effects. Journal of Pragmatics 145. 31–38.10.1016/j.pragma.2019.01.005Search in Google Scholar

Wilson, Deirdre & Dan Sperber. 2004. Relevance theory. In Gregory Ward & Lawrence R. Horn (eds.), The Handbook of Pragmatics, 607–632. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.Search in Google Scholar

Wilson, Deirdre & Dan Sperber (eds.). 2012. Meaning and Relevance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9781139028370Search in Google Scholar

Wilson, Deirdre & Tim Wharton. 2006. Relevance and prosody. Journal of Pragmatics 38(10). 1559–1579.10.1016/j.pragma.2005.04.012Search in Google Scholar

Yus, Francisco, 2009. Visual metaphor versus verbal metaphor: A unified account. In Charles Forceville & Eduardo Urios-Aparisi (eds.), Multimodal Metaphor, 145–172. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.10.1515/9783110215366.3.147Search in Google Scholar

Published Online: 2022-10-20
Published in Print: 2022-05-25

© 2022 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Downloaded on 11.9.2025 from https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/lpp-2022-0001/html
Scroll to top button