Relevanciaelmélete

Relevanciaelmélete, often translated as relevance theory, is a theory of human cognition and communication proposed by Deirdre Wilson and Dan Sperber. It is a development of Grice's cooperative principle and aims to provide a more psychologically realistic account of how people understand each other. The central tenet of relevance theory is that communication is fundamentally a matter of inferring the speaker's intended meaning, and that this inference process is guided by an expectation of relevance.

According to relevance theory, utterances are processed in a way that aims to maximize cognitive effects (new information, changes to existing beliefs) while minimizing processing effort. Listeners assume that the speaker has intended to produce a relevant utterance, and they will continue to process the utterance until they reach a point where the cognitive effects justify the effort expended. This expectation of relevance is so strong that speakers do not need to explicitly signal their intentions.

The theory distinguishes between explicit meaning (explicature) and implicit meaning (implicature). Explicatures are the propositions literally conveyed by an utterance, which are then developed and enriched by the listener. Implicatures are the additional assumptions that the listener infers to achieve optimal relevance. Relevance theory offers explanations for various linguistic phenomena, including metaphor, irony, and the interpretation of pronouns. It posits that all communication is inherently ostensive-inferential, meaning that speakers provide evidence of their intention to be informative and relevant, and listeners use this evidence to infer meaning.