Relevance-Theory

BriefIntroductiontoRelevanceTheoryFormallyproposedbyDanSperberandDeirdreWilsonintheirbookRelevance:CommunicationandCognitionin1986,relevancetheory,intendedtoimproveGriceanmaximsbyreducingredundantmaximstoonesingleprinciple,hasarisenheateddiscussionsforyearssinceitwasfirstproposed.Thispresentation,accordingly,willgiveabriefintroductiontorelevancetheory,itsorigin,itscorenotions,itsmainprinciples,anditscurrentassessment,thesignificantcontributionsithasmadetopragmaticsandthelimitationsthatneededtobeovercomeinfuturestudy.RelevanceTheory:itscommunicativeviewAsforthedefinitionoflanguage,mostlinguiststendtoregardlanguageasagrammar-governedrepresentationalsystemusedforcommunication.Therefore,languageistoexpressandexplainmeaning,andthebasicfunctionoflanguageistocommunicate.However,SperberandWilsonbelievethatalthoughlanguagecanbeusedforcommunicativepurpose,itscommunicativefunctionhasnotrevealedtheessentialfeaturesoflanguage.Intheiropinion,humanactivitiesinvolvedlanguageisinessenceforcognition.Cognitionistoabsorbinformation,toobtaintheknowledge.Sothebasicfunctionoflanguageistoretrieveandprocessinformation.Thusrelevancetheoryregardcommunicativeactivities,verbalornonverbal,ascognitiveactivities.Theintentionofspeakercanbeperceivedbytheaudiencebecauseofthesharedcognitiveenvironment.Thesuccessofcommunicationwilldependonthemanifestnessandmutualmanifestnessofeachother'scognitiveenvironment.Humancognitiontendstobegearedtotheprincipleofrelevance,andthecomprehensionofutterancesfollowostensive-inferentialmodel.RevisionofTwomodelsofCommunication:Codemodel&InferentialmodelCodemodelFromAristotlethroughtomodernsemioticsinitiatedbySaussure,alltheoriesofcommunicationwasbasedonasinglemodel,whichwewillcallthecodemodel.Accordingtothecodemodel,communicativefunctionisthemainfunctionoflanguageandthatcommunicationisachievedbyencodinganddecodingmessages.Severalnotions:Acode,isasystemwhichpairsmessageswithsignals,enablingtwoinformation-processingdevices(organismsormachines)tocommunicate.Amessageisarepresentationinternaltothecommunicatingdevices.Asignalisamodificationoftheexternalenvironmentwhichcanbeproducedbyonedeviceandrecognizedbytheother.AwidelyquoteddiagramofShannonandWeaver(1949),slightlyadaptedinfigure1,showshowcommunicationcanbeachievedbyuseofacode.message源发信息signalreceivedsignalreceivedmessage接收信息||||noiseThisdiagramshowshowamessageoriginatinginaninformationsourcecanbeduplicatedatadestinationastheresultofacommunicationprocess.Asamatteroffact,ShannonandWeaver'sdiagramisinspiredbytelecommunicationstechenology.Thus,communicationisachievedbyencodingamessage,whichcannottravel,intoasignal,whichcan,andbydecodingthissignalatthereceivingend.Noisealongthechannel(electricaldisturbances)candestroyordistortthesignal.Otherwise,aslongasthedevicesareinorderandthecodesareidenticalatbothends,successfulcommunicationisguaranteed.Thuslanguageisseenasacodewhichpairsphoneticandsemanticrepresentationsofsentences.Thisviewofcommunicationhasbeenproventobeexplanatoryforsomeformsofweakcommunication,suchasMorsecodesoftrafficlights,however,itsmaindefectliesinitsinadequacyindescriptionofverbalcommunication,anditcannevertouchthecoreofverbalcommunication,forverbalcommunicationisfarmorethesimpleencodinganddecodingprocess.InferentialmodelThealternativeofcodemodelistheinferentialmodelofcommunication.Stillassumingthatthecodemodelprovidestheframeworkforageneraltheoryofcommunicationandverbalcommunication,theinferentialmodeldescribedcomprehensionasaninferentialprocess.Thuscommunicationhasbeendescribedasaprocessofinferentialrecognitionofthecommunicator'sintentions.Theinferentialanddecodingprocessesarequitedifferent.Accordingtothecodemodel,communicationisachievedbyencodinganddecodingmessages.Accordingtotheinferentialmodel,communicationisachievedbythecommunicatorprovidingevidenceofherintentionsandtheaudienceinferringherintentionsfromtheevidence,onthebasisofthesharedcommonknowledge(sharedcontextualelements).语码模式认为交际是对信息的编码和解码的过程；推理模式认为，交际是说话人提供他要表达的意图的证据（前提）、听话人根据这些证据，结合“共有知识”（即共有的语境部分）而推断出说话人意图的过程。Aninferentialprocessstartsfromasetofpremisesandresultsinasetofconclusionswhichfollowlogicallyfrom,orareatleastwarrantedby,thepremises.Adecodingprocessstartsfromasignalandresultsintherecoveryofamessagewhichisassociatedtothesignalbyanunderlyingcode.推理过程起始于前提，终结于结论，这些结论从前提按逻辑推断出来，其可信性至少由前提得到一定的保证。而解码过程起始于信号，终结于复原的信息，这一信息由于隐含的语码而与该信号相联系。Thenarethesetwomodelsofthesamething?Orofquitedifferentthings?Cantheybeamalgamatedinsomeway?Howarethetworelated?source信源信源encoder编码信源channel信道信源decoder解码信源destination信的信源Infact,mosttheoristsseecommunicationasaunitaryphenomenon,tobedescribedbyasinglemodel.Thecodemodelisverywellentrenchedinthewesternscholarlytradition,theinferentialmodelalsoappealstocommonsense.Whenanappealingnewapproachisputforward,thetemptationistotreatitnotasanalternativetotheoldapproachbutasanelaborationofit.However,bothofthetwomodelhavelimitations.Thecodemodelhasthemeritofexplaininghowcommunicationcouldinprinciplebeachieved.However,itfailsonthedescriptiveside:cannotexplainmorecomplicatedt