Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-8ctnn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T12:07:02.379Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Shared assumptions: Semantic minimalism and Relevance Theory1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 October 2007

DANIEL WEDGWOOD
DANIEL WEDGWOOD*
Affiliation:
University of Edinburgh
*
Author's address: Linguistics and English Language, University of Edinburgh, Adam Ferguson Building, 40 George Square, Edinburgh EH8 9LL, Scotland, U.K. E-mail: dan@ling.ed.ac.uk
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Cappelen & Lepore (2005, 2006a, 2007) note that linguistic communication requires ‘shared content’ and claim that Relevance Theory makes content sharing impossible. This criticism rests upon two important errors. The first is a flawed understanding of Relevance Theory, shown in the application of an omniscient third party perspective to parts of Relevance Theory that depend only upon subjective judgements made by the addressee of an utterance. The second is confusion about different definitions of content. Cappelen & Lepore's evidence actually involves the communication of what they term Speech Act content, which need not be perfectly ‘shared’ according to their own position. Looking beyond this flawed criticism, a general comparison of Relevance Theory with Cappelen & Lepore's semantic minimalism reveals significant parallels, pointing to a notable convergence of two distinct approaches – one cognitive-pragmatic, the other philosophical-semantic – on the rejection of currently dominant assumptions in linguistic semantics. The key remaining difference is Cappelen & Lepore's claim that shared content is propositional. This contradicts other claims made for such content and in any case plays no active role in the explanation of communication. Cappelen & Lepore's position thus poses no threat to Relevance Theory; rather, Relevance Theory can benefit from their philosophical analysis of the state of semantic theory.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Linguistics , Volume 43 , Issue 3 , November 2007 , pp. 647 - 681
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2007

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Atlas, , Jay, David. 2005. Logic, meaning and conversation: Semantical underdeterminacy, implicature, and their interface. Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Atlas, , Jay, David. To appear. How insensitive can you be? Meanings, propositions, context, and semantical underdeterminacy. In Preyer, & Peter, (eds.).Google Scholar
Bezuidenhout, Anne. 2006. The coherence of contextualism. Mind and Language 21(1), 1–10.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blakemore, Diane. 1992. Understanding utterances: An introduction to pragmatics. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Borg, Emma. To appear. Minimalism versus contextualism in semantics. In Preyer, & Peter, (eds.).Google Scholar
Breheny, Richard. 2005. Some scalar implicatures really aren't quantity implicatures – but some's are. In Emar, Maier, Corien, Bary & Janneke, Huitink (eds.), Proceedings of SuB9, 57–71. Nijmegen: Nijmegen Centre for Semantics.Google Scholar
Cappelen, Herman & Lepore, Ernie [Ernest]. 2005. Insensitive semantics: A defense of semantic minimalism and speech act pluralism. Oxford: Blackwell.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cappelen, Herman & Lepore, Ernest. 2006a. Shared content. In Ernest, Lepore & Barry, Smith (eds.) Oxford handbook of philosophy of language, 1020–1055. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Cappelen, Herman & Lepore, Ernie [Ernest]. 2006b. Replies. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 73(2), 469–492.Google Scholar
Cappelen, Herman & Lepore, Ernie [Ernest]. 2006c. Response. Mind and Language 21(1), 50–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cappelen, Herman & Lepore, Ernie [Ernest]. 2007. Relevance theory and shared content. In Noel, Burton-Roberts (ed.), Pragmatics, 115–135. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carston, Robyn. 1985. A reanalysis of some ‘quantity implicatures’. Ms., University College London.Google Scholar
Carston, Robyn. 1988. Language and cognition. In Frederick, Newmeyer (ed.), Linguistics: The Cambridge survey, vol. III, 38–68. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Carston, Robyn. 1998. Informativeness, relevance and scalar implicature. In Robyn, Carston & Seiji, Uchida (eds.), Relevance Theory: Applications and implications, 179–236. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Carston, Robyn. 2002. Thoughts and utterances: The pragmatics of explicit communication. Oxford: Blackwell.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carston, Robyn. 2004. Explicature and semantics. In Steven, Davis & Brendan, Gillon(eds.), Semantics: A reader, 817–845. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carston, Robyn. 2006. Linguistic communication and the semantics/pragmatics distinction. University College London Working Papers in Linguistics 18, 37–69.Google Scholar
Carston, Robyn. To appear. Linguistic communication and the semantics/pragmatics distinction. Synthese.Google Scholar
Geurts, Bart. 1998. Scalars. In Petra, Ludewig & Bart, Geurts (eds.) Lexikalische Semantik aus kognitiver Sicht, 95–118. Tübingen: Gunter Narr.Google Scholar
Grice, H. Paul. 1975. Logic and conversation. In Peter, Cole & Jerry, Morgan (eds.), Speech acts (Syntax and Semantics 3), 41–58. New York: Academic Press. [Reprinted in Grice, H. P., 1989. Studies in the way of words, 22–40. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press].CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gross, Steven. 2006. Can one sincerely say what one doesn't believe? Mind and Language 21(1), 11–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Horn, Laurence. 1972. On the semantic properties of logical operators in English. Ph.D. dissertation, UCLA. [Distributed by Indiana University Linguistics Club, 1976].Google Scholar
Horn, Laurence. 1992. The said and the unsaid. Ohio State University Working Papers in Linguistics 40: Proceedings of SALT II, 163–192.Google Scholar
Kadmon, Nirit. 2001. Formal pragmatics: Semantics, pragmatics, presupposition, and focus. Malden, MA & Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Korta, Kepa & Perry, John. 2006. Varieties of minimalist semantics. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 73(2), 451–459.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Larson, Richard & Segal, Gabriel. 1995. Knowledge of meaning: An introduction to semantic theory. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MacKenzie, Ian. 2002. Paradigms of reading: Relevance theory and deconstruction. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Montminy, Martin. 2006. Semantic content, truth conditions and context. Linguistics and Philosophy 29(1), 1–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Preyer, Gerhard & Peter, Georg(eds.). To appear. Context-sensitivity and semantic minimalism: New essays on semantics and pragmatics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Sperber, Dan & Wilson, Deirdre. 1986. Relevance: Communication and cognition. Oxford: Blackwell. [2nd edn., 1995.]Google Scholar
Stanley, Jason & Szabó, Gendler Zoltán. 2000. On quantifier domain restriction. Mind and Language 15(2–3), 219–261.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Travis, Charles. 2006. Insensitive semantics. Mind and Language 21(1), 39–49.Google Scholar
Wedgwood, Daniel. 2005. Shifting the focus: From static structures to the dynamics of interpretation. Amsterdam & Oxford: Elsevier.Google Scholar
Wilson, Deirdre & Sperber, Dan. 2004. Relevance Theory. In Laurence, Horn & Gregory, Ward (eds.) The handbook of pragmatics, 607–632. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar