From Normative Pragmatics to a Relevance Theoretic Pragmatic Framework
From Normative Pragmatics to a Relevance Theoretic Pragmatic Framework

Summary/Abstract: The paper addresses the transition from the distinction between ‘what is said’ and what is implicated, viewed within Grice’s philosophically based analysis, to the distinction between explicature and implicature advanced by the relevance theory within a cognitive theoretical framework. One of the key differences between Grice’s model and relevance theorists’ model of analysis lies in the distinction between explicatures and implicatures. The explicature/implicature distinction is one manifestation of the distinction between the explicit content of an utterance and its implicit meaning. On a relevance-based account, the Gricean class of conversational implicatures has become considerably reduced and Grice’s generalized conversational implicatures are treated as part of what is explicitly communicated, that is, as explicatures.

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