Creativity and convention : the pragmatics of everyday figurative speech
The aim of this thesis is to provide a unified account of the comprehension of novel and conventional figurative uses of language in everyday conversation. The first two chapters present a view of human cognition as having evolved towards increasing efficiency, characterised by the selection and processing of just those sources of information which are likely to yield cognitive benefits and incur limited costs in processing effort. Pursuing the pragmatic framework of Relevance Theory developed by Dan Sperber and Deirdre Wilson, I take this view of cognition to set the grounds for a relevance-driven, inferential approach to human communication. The rest of the thesis focuses on the role that selective accessing and inference play in the comprehension of a range of everyday figurative uses varying in their degree of familiarity or conventionality. After reviewing existing cognitive approaches to metaphor in chapter three, I provide my own relevance-theoretic analysis in the next chapter. I argue that metaphor interpretation involves processing assumptions selected from the encyclopaedic entry of the concept encoded by the metaphor vehicle and the inferential construction of a new (broader) concept. In chapter
Vega Moreno, Rosa Elena
Creativity and convention : the pragmatics of everyday figurative speech. The aim of this thesis is to provide a unified account of the comprehension of novel and conventional figurative uses of language in everyday conversation. The first two chapters present a view of human cognition as having evolved towards increasing efficiency, characterised by the selection and processing of just those sources of information which are likely to yield cognitive benefits and incur limited costs in processing effort. Pursuing the pragmatic framework of Relevance Theory developed by Dan Sperber and Deirdre Wilson, I take this view of cognition to set the grounds for a relevance-driven, inferential approach to human communication. The rest of the thesis focuses on the role that selective accessing and inference play in the comprehension of a range of everyday figurative uses varying in their degree of familiarity or conventionality. After reviewing existing cognitive approaches to metaphor in chapter three, I provide my own relevance-theoretic analysis in the next chapter. I argue that metaphor interpretation involves processing assumptions selected from the encyclopaedic entry of the concept encoded by the metaphor vehicle and the inferential construction of a new (broader) concept. In chapter
creativity convention pragmatic everyday figurative speech aim_provide unified_account comprehension novel conventional figurative_language everyday conversation first_two present view human_cognition evolve towards increase efficiency characterise selection processing source_information likely yield cognitive benefit incur limited cost process effort pragmatic_framework relevance_theory develop wilson take view cognition set ground relevance driven inferential human_communication rest focus_role selective inference play comprehension range everyday figurative vary_degree familiarity review_exist cognitive approach metaphor provide relevance_theoretic analysis next chapter argue metaphor interpretation involve process assumption select entry concept encode metaphor vehicle inferential construction new broad concept