Abstract
A wide variety of readers can gain new insights into the model of communication introduced by Sperber and Wilson (1995) thanks to this excellent textbook on relevance theory by Billy Clark. This review sets out to analyse why this might be so.
Clark’s Relevance Theory offers the reader a comprehensive, updated perspective on relevance theory as an account of ostensive-inferential communication. Furthermore, Clark is successful at addressing the broad interests of this book’s manifold target readership. This work manages to introduce the reader to the fundamental aspects and essential concepts of relevance theory; equally, the book offers the researcher working in the field of pragmatics useful insights into some of the themes currently being investigated and addressed in this discipline. In line with these two central features, the volume is divided into two main parts: a general overview of the theory; and a more refined and critical account of its substantial topics and developments. The book closes with a useful Appendix that compiles and explains the core concepts of the model.
In Part I, four chapters elaborate on the keystone notions of the relevance-theoretical account of communication. Chapter 1 offers a preliminary outline of the theory and shows that expectations of relevance underlie every act and form of communication, whether direct or indirect. The chapter also discusses the corollaries of the relationship between communication and cognition. To do so, the connections between linguistic and non-linguistic communication (i.e. between coded meaning and inferred meaning) are explored, as are their implications for communicative phenomena such as literalness, irony, metaphors and aspects of communication whose interpretation calls for inferential processes. The chapter closes by analysing the significance of the two principles of relevance and the relevance-theoretic comprehension heuristic within the model.
Chapter 2 offers the reader a contextualisation of relevance theory within other closely related pragmatic approaches by focusing on the critiques received by Gricean, post-Gricean and neo-Gricean pragmatics. Clark explains how relevance theory both emerges from and reacts to Gricean pragmatics. Chapter 3 then focuses on the core notions of relevance theory, particularly the implications of the relationship between relevance, cognition and communication, as well as the two principles of relevance: the latter have given way to two possible forms of relevance, namely, maximising and optimising relevance. More importantly, the chapter provides the reader with a refinement of the original model based on developments that have taken place since it was first put forward by Sperber and Wilson.
In Chapter 4, Clark interprets, in relevance-theoretical terms, the possible ways in which speakers and addressees attempt to understand each other by ostensively making certain assumptions mutually manifest and by inferentially grasping the communicative intention of the speaker, respectively. Inference, both deductive and non-demonstrative, becomes the focus of the first part of the chapter. The main area of interest then shifts to ostensive-inferential communication. Finally, the chapter deals more fully with the relevance-guided comprehension heuristic, which constrains utterance interpretation and is based on processes of mutual parallel adjustment. This is done by showing the different subtasks that are involved in comprehension to satisfy the expectations of relevance which involve resolving explicatures and implicatures.
Part II sets out to offer the reader a more fine-grained account of the relevance-theoretical framework and discusses its main extensions, implications and applications. Based on Carston (2002), Chapters 5, 6 and 7 address the notions of explicatures and implicatures. Clark casts light on the differences between the relevance-theoretical views regarding, on the one hand, what is to be considered explicit or implicit communication and, on the other hand, other pragmatic approaches such as that of Grice. Thus, within the relevance-theoretical account, inferential processes are involved not only in the derivation of implicatures but also in the development of explicatures. As for explicatures, Chapter 5 focuses on processes such as disambiguation, reference assignment, free enrichment, and certain pragmatically inferred aspects of explicatures, such as ellipsis.
Chapter 6 addresses the main properties and types of explicatures that can be communicated. Clark also shows how explicatures may be communicated with different degrees of strength and introduces the concept of weak explicature. The author also offers a revision of the central assumptions made within relevance theory in connection with the relationships between words, concepts and entities in the world. Similarly, Clark integrates the properties shared by loose talk, metaphors and hyperboles into the relevance-theoretical approach.
Chapter 7 elaborates on the main types of implicatures as non-explicitly intentionally communicated assumptions. Clark shows that the distinction between the implicatures of an utterance and some further implications of it, depending on whether the speaker has intentionally communicated them, is a scalar notion. The chapter also discusses those processes that are involved in the derivation of implicatures, and, as was the case with explicatures, different degrees of strength in the derivation of implicatures are considered.
Chapter 8 introduces the reader to the main aspects of lexical pragmatics and its connections with relevance theory. Words may denote different kinds of concepts, such as objects, events or properties, even though there are also words whose referents may be adjusted in the comprehension process. Clark demonstrates how the interpretation of all words is guided by expectations of relevance. The possible ways in which concepts are inferred include broadening (or loosening) and narrowing. The application of these processes results in the formation of ad hoc concepts, provided concepts are adjusted or fine-tuned when they are accessed in context.
Chapters 9 and 10 update the relevance-theoretical analysis of the notions of metaphor and irony. With regard to metaphor, Clark focuses on the different explanations proposed within relevance theory – either as a form of weak implicature or as an ad hoc concept – and upon the recurrent traits shared by these treatments of metaphor. As for irony, Clark examines the relevance-theoretical account of irony as echoic in contrast to both Grice’s traditional approach and pretence. The discussion of both irony and metaphor rests upon the following relevance-theoretical assumptions: first, the traditionally held principle of a sharp distinction between literal and figurative language cannot be maintained and, second, neither metaphor nor irony is a natural kind, which in relevance-theoretical terms means that some utterances may share features of either without being necessarily classifiable as metaphorical or ironic.
Chapter 11 focuses on the applications of relevance theory for linguistic semantics. Clark explains that within relevance theory the relationship between semantics and pragmatics is based on the assumption that linguistic meaning is underdetermined. What is encoded is only a blueprint for the inferential derivation of the proposition expressed and the inferential recognition of the speaker’s communicative intentions. This leads Clark to distinguish between two forms of semantics: linguistic semantics, focusing on linguistically encoded meanings; and real semantics, which approaches the relationship between conceptual representations and the world.
Finally, Chapter 12 offers the reader a most interesting synthesis of the main tenets, applications and recent developments in relevance theory. This synthesis addresses the following: the two principles of relevance, the introduction of the concept of positive cognitive effects which replaces the initial one of contextual effects, the presumption of optimal relevance and the relevance-guided comprehension heuristic. This chapter also delves into the main fields of investigation within pragmatics that can be addressed by the relevance-theoretical framework. To begin with, Clark offers an analysis of the type of data that can be considered: intuitions, corpora, experiments and example texts. Some further lines of scientific exploration to which relevance theory has contributed concern aspects such as the acquisition of universal pragmatic principles among which relevance is paramount; the applications of the relevance-theoretical framework to translation; evolution and developmental pragmatics; pragmatics, meta-representation, modularity and mind-reading, and the specific applications of relevance theory to disciplines and study areas such as stylistics and literary studies, multimodality and media, prosody, forms of non-verbal communication, phatic communication and politeness.
Each chapter is introduced with a list of keywords which certainly helps readers new to the area to grasp the theoretical aspects discussed in that chapter. In line with the rest of the volumes in the Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics series, to which Relevance Theory belongs, every chapter concludes with two sections, namely a summary and suggestions for further reading. Similarly, every chapter is accompanied by a series of exercises which make the work suitable not only for the classroom but also for the reader’s autonomous learning and exploration. Moreover, readers can also access a catalogue of additional exercises through the publisher’s website.
One of the highlights of this book is its potentially wide readership, because Relevance Theory aims to cater both for those already familiar with this analytical framework and issues of pragmatics in general, and newcomers to the discipline. Moreover, the author makes constant references and allusions to the potential reader because the work highlights the applications of relevance theory to a variety of disciplines. Consequently, Clark’s Relevance Theory is a user-friendly or ‘reader-friendly’ insight into what may be regarded as one of the most influential perspectives on communication. In sum, Clark has been successful at demonstrating the validity and applicability of relevance theory by introducing an up-to-date account of the theory and suggesting new avenues for further research and development.