The present volume examines Relevance Theory, one of the most influential pragmatic approaches to communication rooted in human cognition, by testing both its internal coherence and its applicability to such forms of communication as translation and literature. Part I addresses a wide range of issues which, over recent years, have been of central interest to pragmatists, including relevance theorists, but may well appeal to readers less familiar with pragmatic theory. The papers discuss selected pragmatic phenomena as diverse as conversational humour, politeness, echoicity, garden-path utterances, the explicit-implicit distinction and the role of inferential processes in communication, with a view to applying, evaluating and revisiting the basic tenets of Relevance Theory. Part II is devoted to various aspects of translation. The papers test the applicability of Relevance Theory, depending on the subject, the genre and the aim of the given translation. Most of the articles analyse specific areas of translation practice, for example the translation of popular science, legal texts, film and fiction. A collection of papers on varied linguistic and cultural phenomena, this book will be a valuable resource for scholars and students of pragmatics (including cognitive and experimental pragmatics), semantics, sociolinguistics and Translation Studies.
About the Author: Ewa Walaszewska is Assistant Professor at the Institute of English Studies, Warsaw University. Her principal interests lie within the fields of semantics and pragmatics, including Relevance Theory, its applications to the study of particular linguistic phenomena as well as its theoretical implications for the investigation of human communication and cognition. Marta Kisielewska-Krysiuk is Assistant Professor at the Institute of English Studies, Warsaw University. Her research interests and publications focus on cognitive pragmatics, including the relevance-theoretic and competing approaches to modality, the explicit/implicit distinction in communication, and phenomena from the pragmatics/sociolinguistics interface. Aniela Korzeniowska is Head of the Applied Linguistics Department at the Institute of English Studies, Warsaw University. Her main field of interest is Translation Studies. She is the author of Explorations in Polish-English Mistranslation Problems and co-author (with Piotr Kuhiwczak) of Successful Polish-English Translation. Tricks of the Trade. Malgorzata Grzegorzewska is Head of Culture and Language Studies at the Department of Modern Languages, and Professor of Literature at the Institute of English Studies, Warsaw University. She is the author of three books and several articles on Renaissance poetry and drama.