Is relevance theory asocial?
This paper challenges the view that Sperber & Wilson's Relevance Theory is intrinsically asocial. To this effect, it is firstly shown how Relevance Theory provides a more satisfactory explanation of the 'politeness' of imperative sentences than Brown & Levinson'...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Universidad de Alicante
1998-11-01
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| Series: | Revista Alicantina de Estudios Ingleses |
| Online Access: | https://raei.ua.es/article/view/1998-n11-is-relevance-theory-asocial |
| Summary: | This paper challenges the view that Sperber & Wilson's Relevance Theory is intrinsically asocial. To this effect, it is firstly shown how Relevance Theory provides a more satisfactory explanation of the 'politeness' of imperative sentences than Brown & Levinson's treatment. Secondly' supposed examples of the theory's inability to explain socially motivated instances of language use presented by O'Neill are examined and shown to be well within its explanatory power. Finally, a more general argument is presented. Recent insights from evolutionary psychology are drawn on in order to demonstrate how Sperber & Wilson's account of the way humans interpret utterances is able to accommodate a social dimension. |
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| ISSN: | 0214-4808 2171-861X |