Genre, Relevance and Global Coherence: The Pragmatics of Discourse Type (Palgrave Studies in Pragmatics, Languages and Cognition)

Genre, Relevance and Global Coherence seeks to explain how discourse types or genre may influence the addressee's inferential processes in identifying the communicator's intention. It examines global coherence-based accounts as well as proposals based on Gricean pragmatics, arguing that the key to a solution lies in the interplay of the cognitive and communicative principles of relevance proposed by Sperber & Wilson. It unravels intricate relations between cognitive mechanisms, communicative principles and expectations of relevance in complex ostensive stimuli such as texts. Cover......Page 1 Contents......Page 8 Acknowledgements......Page 13 1.1 Genre in pragmatic theory......Page 14 1.2 The notion of genre......Page 17 1.3 The functions of genre......Page 20 1.4.1 Communication, code and inference......Page 23 1.4.2 Cognition and relevance......Page 26 1.4.3 Communication and relevance......Page 28 1.4.4 The relevance-theoretic comprehension procedure......Page 29 1.5 Overview of the book......Page 33 PART 1: GLOBAL COHERENCE AND GENRE......Page 36 2.1 Introduction......Page 38 2.2 Samet and Schank (1984) on coherence......Page 39 2.3 On the notion of global coherence......Page 41 2.4 Causal relations, global coherence and time......Page 47 2.5 Conclusion......Page 58 3.2 Global coherence as topic relevance......Page 59 3.3 The quaestio approach......Page 65 3.4 Questioning in discourse, topic, and discourse structure......Page 69 3.5 Conclusion......Page 83 4.1 Introduction......Page 85 4.2 Defining 'foreground'......Page 86 4.3 Grounding in discourse and discourse type......Page 110 4.4 Conclusion......Page 116 PART 2: EXPECTATIONS OF RELEVANCE AND GENRE......Page 118 5.2 Expectations of relevance and complex stimuli......Page 120 5.3 Expectations of relevance and parallel processing......Page 127 5.4 Expectations of relevance and attention......Page 134 5.5 On inferring expectations of relevance......Page 135 5.6 Expectations of relevance and connectivity in discourse......Page 140 5.7 Summary and conclusion......Page 155 6.2 Implicit questioning in discourse and expectations of relevance......Page 156 6.3 Expectations of relevance and the cognitive role of genre......Page 168 6.4 Conclusion......Page 185 7.1 Introduction......Page 187 7.2 The interpretation and use of verb forms......Page 188 7.3 Greek participial clauses......Page 192 7.4 Anaphora......Page 204 7.5 Conclusion......Page 210 PART 3: GENRE IN INFERENTIAL THEORIES OF COMMUNICATION......Page 212 8.2 Register and context......Page 214 8.3 Register and text typology......Page 216 8.4 Genre......Page 217 8.5 Evaluation and research questions......Page 218 8.6 Genre in a non-cognitive account of communication......Page 221 8.7 Genre and schematic structure......Page 225 8.8 On register......Page 228 8.9 Conclusion......Page 235 9.1 Genre in an inferential theory of communication......Page 237 9.2 Discourse types and the universality of pragmatic maxims......Page 238 9.3 Conversation types and conversational requirements......Page 242 9.4 Scalar implicatures in relevance theory......Page 247 9.5 A critical comparison of the three proposals......Page 251 9.6 Genre in relevance theory......Page 261 9.7 Conclusion......Page 264 10.1 The role of genre in cognitive pragmatics......Page 266 10.2 Genre and pragmatics......Page 271 10.3 Genre and discourse analysis......Page 275 10.4 New questions......Page 279 Notes......Page 282 Bibliography......Page 294 Index......Page 314 Genre, Relevance and Global Coherence seeks to explain how discourse types or genre may influence the addressee's inferential processes in identifying the communicator's intention. There are two main areas where such an influence is often felt: the interpretation of tense and aspect markers is often said to differ in various text types, and the communication of implicatures is said to differ in various talk-exchange types. The first type of genre effects is usually approached by global coherence-based accounts whereas the second by proposals based on Gricean pragmatics. This study examines both types of accounts, arguing that the key to a solution lies in the interplay of the cognitive and communicative principles of relevance proposed by Sperber and Wilson. It unravels intricate relations between cognitive mechanisms, communicative principles and expectations of relevance in complex ostensive stimuli such as texts

Genre, Relevance and Global Coherence seeks to explain how discourse types or genre may influence the addressee's inferential processes in identifying the communicator's intention. There are two main areas where such an influence is often felt: the interpretation of tense and aspect markers is often said to differ in various text types, and the communication of implicatures is said to differ in various talk-exchange types. The first type of genre effects is usually approached by global coherence-based accounts whereas the second by proposals based on Gricean pragmatics. This study examines both types of accounts, arguing that the key to a solution lies in the interplay of the cognitive and communicative principles of relevance proposed by Sperber and Wilson.

This book seeks to explain how discourse types influence the addressee's understanding of the communicator's intention. Examining global coherence-based accounts as well as proposals based on Gricean pragmatics, it argues that the key to a solution lies in the cognitive and communicative principles of relevance proposed by Sperber & Wilson. In this work, Christoph Unger explains how discourse types influence the addressee's inferential processes in identifying the communicator's intention