Contents

Preface to Second Edition xxix

List of Symbols xxxi

1 Communication 1

1 The code model and the semiotic approach to communication 3

2 Decoding and inference in verbal comprehension 9

3 The mutual-knowledge hypothesis 15

4 Grice’s approach to ‘meaning’ and communication 21

5 Should the code model and the inferential model be amalgamated? 24

6 Problems of definition 28

7 Problems of explanation: Grice’s theory of conversation 31

8 Cognitive environments and mutual manifestness 38

9 Relevance and ostension 46

10 Ostensive-inferential communication 50

11 The informative intention 54

12 The communicative intention 60

2 Inference 65

1 Non-demonstrative inference 65

2 Logical forms, propositional attitudes and factual assumptions 71

3 Strength of assumptions 75

4 Deductive rules and concepts 83

5 The deductive device 93

6 Some types of deduction 103

7 Contextual effects: the role of deduction in non-demonstrative inference 108

3 Relevance 118

1 Conditions for relevance 118

2 Degrees of relevance: effect and effort 123

3 Is the context given or chosen? 132

4 A choice of contexts 137

5 Relevance to an individual 142

6 The relevance of phenomena and stimuli 151

7 The principle of relevance 155

8 How relevance theory explains ostensive-inferential communication 163

4 Aspects of verbal communication 172

1 Language and communication 172

2 Verbal communication, explicatures and implicatures 176

3 The identification of propositional form 183

4 The identification of implicatures 193

5 Propositional form and style: presuppositional effects 202

6 Implicatures and style: poetic effects 217

7 Descriptive and interpretive dimensions of language use 224

8 Literalness and metaphor 231

9 Echoic utterances and irony 237

10 Speech acts 243

Postface 255

Notes to First Edition 281

Notes to Second Edition 293

Notes to Postface 295

Bibliography 299

Index 321