Pragmatic Competence and Relevance

Elly Ifantidou | University of Athens

Hardbound – Available

ISBN 9789027256508 | EUR 90.00 | USD 135.00

e-Book –

ISBN 9789027270375 | EUR 90.00 | USD 135.00

This book probes into under-researched issues in L2 pragmatics. Firstly, pragmatic competence, pragmatic awareness and metapragmatic awareness are re-defined and clearly distinguished on theoretical grounds. Secondly, pragmatic competence and its manifestations are evaluated on empirical grounds by distinct criteria and validated testing measures. More importantly, genuine pragmatic inference is elicited in contexts of online interpretation where figurative speech plays a central role. Genre-specific discourse which occurs in editorials and news reports serves as a natural testbed for examining the role of advanced mind-reading abilities in developing pragmatic competence. Sperber and Wilson’s relevance theory accommodates the findings of empirical assessment and yields new insights in the cognitive procedures activated during interpretation. The comprehensive theoretical and methodological treatment of pragmatic competence makes this book of interest to researchers and students in pragmatics, L2 theory and applications, genre studies, and to those concerned with the cognitive underpinnings of communication in L2.

[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series, 245] 2014. x, 228 pp.

Publishing status: Available

https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.245

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements | pp. ix–x

Introduction | pp. 1–8

Chapter 1. The scope of pragmatics | pp. 9–30

Chapter 2. Pragmatic meaning in L2 | pp. 31–58

Chapter 3. Genres and pragmatic competence | pp. 59–98

Chapter 4. Relevance theory and communication | pp. 99–124

Chapter 5. Pragmatic competence revisited | pp. 125–150

Chapter 6. The data | pp. 151–190

Chapter 7. Conclusion: From genre(s) to pragmatic inference | pp. 191–200

References

Appendix | pp. 217–226

Index | pp. 227–228

“This is a ground-breaking and extremely valuable book which strikes an impressive balance between theoretical argument and empirical work. It is full of insightfully analysed practical examples and illustrations showing clearly how a cognitive pragmatic approach can both broaden and deepen our understanding of L2 abilities. It is generous and fair-minded in its treatment of alternative approaches, and provides a wealth of empirical data that should be a goldmine not only for L2 teachers and scholars but for pragmatic theorists. It is the first book I would recommend to anyone with an interest in pragmatic competence in L2.”

Deirdre Wilson, University College London

“This is a meticulously researched, beautifully written volume, which represents a major contribution to our understanding of L2 pragmatic competence. The author adopts a resolutely cognitive approach to pragmatics and, using concepts and notions from relevance theory, sheds new light on the ways in which L2 pragmatic competence might be fostered. As such, it is a breath of fresh air in the literature in this area and deserves to be very widely read.”

Tim Wharton, University of Brighton

“This work combines cognitive pragmatics (relevance theory) with empirical evidence on genre-based interpretation in an innovative way and thus greatly enhances our understanding of pragmatic competence in L2. Editorials and news reports are used to assess learners’ ability for pragmatic inference and the role of mind-reading abilities in developing pragmatic competence. This area of enquiry marks a significant change from traditional approaches to pragmatic competence which generally focus on examining patterns of behaviours using conversational records of interaction. This is an important emergent area of research in L2 pragmatics, making this monograph an original and timely contribution to the field. Pragmatic Competence and Relevance is an inspiring and absorbing reading for scholars and students of communication and cognition, L2 pedagogy, and genre studies.”

Sophia Marmaridou, University of Athens

“This monograph will be essential reading for RT researchers in the area of L2 pragmatics, and should be of interest to those investigating this phenomenon from competing theoretical perspectives.”

Adam Gargani, University of Salford, on Linguist List 26.2563, 22 May 2015

Cited by (20)

Cited by 20 other publications

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2021. Second Language Pragmatics. In The Cambridge Handbook of Sociopragmatics, ► pp. 758 ff.

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2021. An Integrated Approach to Pragmatic Competence: Its Framework and Properties. SAGE Open 11:2 ► pp. 215824402110114 ff.

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2019. Relevance, Pragmatics and Interpretation,

Yuan, Wen, Francis Y. Lin & Richard P. Cooper

2019. Relevance theory, pragmatic inference and cognitive architecture. Philosophical Psychology 32:1 ► pp. 98 ff.

Padilla Cruz, Manuel

2016. Three decades of relevance theory. In Relevance Theory [Pragmatics & Beyond New Series, 268], ► pp. 1 ff.

Padilla Cruz, Manuel

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[no author supplied]

2021. Approaches and Methods in Sociopragmatics. In The Cambridge Handbook of Sociopragmatics, ► pp. 567 ff.

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This list is based on CrossRef data as of 20 september 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

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