Research Catalog

Meaning and relevance / Deirdre Wilson and Dan Sperber.

Title
Meaning and relevance / Deirdre Wilson and Dan Sperber.
Author
Wilson, Deirdre.
Publication
Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2012.

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TextUse in library P325 .W479 2012Off-site

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Additional Authors
Sperber, Dan.
Description
xiv, 382 p. : ill.; 23 cm.
Summary
"When people speak, their words never fully encode what they mean, and the context is always compatible with a variety of interpretations. How can comprehension ever be achieved? Wilson and Sperber argue that comprehension is a process of inference guided by precise xpectations of relevance. What are the relations between the linguistically encoded meanings studied in semantics and the thoughts that humans are capable of entertaining and conveying? How should we analyse literal meaning, approximations, metaphors and ironies? Is the ability to understand speakers' meanings rooted in a more general human ability to understand other minds? How do these abilities interact in evolution and in cognitive development? Meaning and Relevance sets out to answer these and other questions, enriching and updating relevance theory and exploring its implications for linguistics, philosophy, cognitive science and literary studies"--
Subject
  • Cognition
  • Inference
  • LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Linguistics / Semantics
  • Relevance
  • Semantics
Bibliography (note)
  • Includes bibliographical references and index.
Processing Action (note)
  • committed to retain
ISBN
  • 9780521747486 (pbk.)
  • 0521747481 (pbk.)
  • 9780521766777 (hbk)
  • 052176677X (hbk)
LCCN
^^2011032500
Owning Institutions
Harvard Library