ABSTRACT
Relevance theory (henceforth RT) is a cognitive pragmatics theory of communication by Sperber & Wilson (1986; 1995) that aims to identify “underlying mechanisms, rooted in human psychology, which explain how humans communicate with one another” (Sperber & Wilson, 1986, p. 32). It inherits some of Grice’s ideas, while departing substantially from them (Grice, 1975; Attardo, 2017). As a cognitive pragmatics theory, it is interested in the inferences that the hearer makes when trying to identify the speaker’s communicative intentions (his/her intended interpretation of the utterance) based on what the speaker has coded verbally (i.e., spoken, written, typed) or nonverbally (e.g., gestures, facial expressions). The theory also addresses the predictions of relevance that speakers make when choosing an utterance or text for transferring their thoughts to other people within interactions. Finally, RT is also interested in the mental representations that underlie communication and in the mental processes that are at work in communication.
