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. 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.

Front Matter....Pages i-xii Introduction....Pages 1-22 Front Matter....Pages 23-23 Global coherence and global discourse relations....Pages 25-45 Topic-based approaches to global coherence....Pages 46-71 Global coherence and grounding in discourse....Pages 72-103 Front Matter....Pages 105-105 Expectations of relevance....Pages 107-142 Expectations of relevance, implicit questioning in discourse, and genre....Pages 143-173 Empirical issues in global coherence and text typology....Pages 174-197 Front Matter....Pages 199-199 Genre in code-based theories of communication....Pages 201-223 Conversational maxims and genre....Pages 224-252 A re-analysis of genre and its implications for pragmatics....Pages 253-268 Back Matter....Pages 269-308 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