Relevance: Communication & Cognition

by Dan Sperber, Deirdre Wilson

Relevance, first published in 1986, was named as one of the most important and influential books of the decade in the Times Higher Educational Supplement. This revised edition includes a new Preface outlining developments in Relevance Theory since 1986, discussing the more serious criticisms of the theory, and envisaging possible revisions or extensions.
The book sets out to lay the foundation for a unified theory of cognitive science. The authors argue than human cognition has a goal: we pay attention only to information which seems to us relevant. To communicate is to claim someone's attention, and hence to imply that the information communicated is relevant. Thus, a single property - relevance is seen as the key to human communication and cognition.
A second important feature of the book is its approach to the study of reasoning. It elucidates the role of background or contextual information in spontaneous inference, and shows that non-demonstrative inference processes can be fruitfully analysed as a form of suitably constrained guesswork. It directly challenges recent claims that human central thought processes are likely to remain a mystery for some time to come.
Thirdly, the authors offer new insight into language and literature, radically revising current view on the nature and goals of verbal comprehension, and in particular on metaphor, irony, style, speech acts, presupposition and implicature.

Genres: Linguistics, Philosophy, Language, Psychology, Research, Science, Communication

338 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1986

About the author

Dan Sperber is a French social and cognitive scientist. His most influential work has been in the fields of cognitive anthropology and linguistic pragmatics: developing, with British psychologist Deirdre Wilson, relevance theory in the latter; and an approach to cultural evolution known as the 'epidemiology of representations' in the former. Sperber currently holds the positions of Directeur de Recherche émérite at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and Director of the International Cognition and Culture Institute.

Reviews

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

The theory presented in this book builds on Grice's theories of meaning-making in context and diverges from them, arguing that ultimately the goal in human cognitive processes is to achieve the greatest possible cognitive effect--in that communication is driven by what is the most relevant in context, for the smallest possible processing effort. While I find in-depth and detailed explication of conversation (of which there is much in this book) to be a tad tedious, I find this angle on studying language and cognition to be valuable in context with angles that study language from a perspective that does not take into account the sociological. I think the sociological perspective inevitably has an effect on the negotiation of discourse between people and even on linguistic change, and so find the theory presented in this book to be worthwhile.

(I read an old, used copy; 1st edition, not the 2nd edition listed here.)

[Derek Bridge · Rating 4 out of 5]

I first read this when it was first published and I was beginning my PhD, 30 years ago. I have moved away from this field so I don't know how well its ideas have stood the test of time. Reading it again, I am struck by how comprehensive and radical is its attack on the then-prevailing (and possibly still-prevailing) ideas about communication and cognition. But I am also struck by its complete absence of any hard scientific evidence: no meaningful citations of psycholinguistic or psychological experiments. Finally, I am struck at how prolix it is (although, admittedly, it does have huge scope), so much so that it is hard to pin down a precise theory here; possibly all sorts of lacunae are hidden by this writing style. Perhaps my criticisms are unfair: the book launches a programme of work with some real insights, rather than summarizes a firmly established theory.

[Bledar · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is the authority on relevance theory, but it is not an easy read. It does require a basic understanding of logic and a lot o patience. I read the book because everyone was building of it, and I wanted to give it a fair share. Others have simplified it for me and made it more accessible.

One welcome of second edition is the clarification and the Postface.

[Giulia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Passionnant pour les linguistes et les socio-anthropologues s'intéressant aux diverses théories de la communication. Parfois les exemples sont bien trop longs mais cela reste cohérent avec le format académique du livre.

[in8 · Rating 3 out of 5]

http://www.5cense.com/18/582.htm

[Alienne Laval · Rating 5 out of 5]

Symbols and Signs...

[Larry · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tedious to read but illuminating to think about

[Josita · Rating 4 out of 5]

Y si hago la mención en lingüística?

[Daniela · Rating 4 out of 5]

although hard to follow in places, the book is illuminating as to relevance-focused aspects of cgnition - a simple truth couched in an emblellished argumentative scaffolding!

[Steve]

Got about half of the pages turned, but about half of those were seen through glazed-over eyes. Interesting stuff, but too technical for me.