Logical structure and relevance : on the context dependence of argument structure
This thesis sets out to investigate mentalist pragmatics and its contribution to the study of the human cognitive capacity to develop linguistic abilities. Implementing the inferential view of communication that Relevance Theory endorses, it is indicated that the inferential processes that are involved in instances of linguistic usage are far more pervasive than already thought both within and outside the framework. Differentiating between the cognitive notion of maximal relevance and the communicative one of optimal relevance, it is argued that relevance considerations, in the two corresponding technical senses of the term, play a decisive role in the processes of context selection, communicated meaning attribution and argument realisation. More specifically, it is initially suggested that the hypothesis that human cognition tends to be geared towards maximal relevance can provide significant insights into the ways contextual information is selectively accessed in interpretation. Then, the semantics/pragmatics distinction is readdressed from a radically pragmatist perspective and a case is made for a âlooserâ context-dependent semantics that provides the basis upon which interpretation occurs at both
Assimakopoulos, Stavros
Logical structure and relevance : on the context dependence of argument structure. This thesis sets out to investigate mentalist pragmatics and its contribution to the study of the human cognitive capacity to develop linguistic abilities. Implementing the inferential view of communication that Relevance Theory endorses, it is indicated that the inferential processes that are involved in instances of linguistic usage are far more pervasive than already thought both within and outside the framework. Differentiating between the cognitive notion of maximal relevance and the communicative one of optimal relevance, it is argued that relevance considerations, in the two corresponding technical senses of the term, play a decisive role in the processes of context selection, communicated meaning attribution and argument realisation. More specifically, it is initially suggested that the hypothesis that human cognition tends to be geared towards maximal relevance can provide significant insights into the ways contextual information is selectively accessed in interpretation. Then, the semantics/pragmatics distinction is readdressed from a radically pragmatist perspective and a case is made for a âlooserâ context-dependent semantics that provides the basis upon which interpretation occurs at both
logical_structure relevance context dependence argument_structure set_investigate pragmatic study human cognitive capacity develop linguistic ability inferential view communication relevance_theory endorse indicate inferential process_involve instance linguistic usage far pervasive already think within_outside framework cognitive notion maximal relevance communicative optimal relevance argue relevance consideration correspond technical sens term play decisive role process context selection communicate mean attribution argument realisation specifically initially suggest hypothesis human_cognition tends gear_towards maximal relevance provide_significant insight way contextual_information selectively accessed interpretation semantics pragmatics distinction radically pragmatist perspective case make context_dependent semantics provide_basis upon interpretation occurs