Interpretation and Understanding

Front Cover
John Benjamins Publishing, Jan 1, 2003 - Language Arts & Disciplines - 714 pages
Our species has been hunting for meaning ever since we departed from our cousins in the evolutionary tree. We developed sophisticated forms of communication. Yet, as much as they can convey meaning and foster understanding, they can also hide meaning and prevent comprehension. Indeed, we can never be sure that a "yes" conveys assent or that a smile reveals pleasure. In order to ascertain what communicative behavior "means", we have to go through an elaborate cognitive process of interpretation. This book deals with how we achieve the daily miracle of understanding each other. Based on the author's contributions to pragmatics, the book articulates his perspective using the insights of linguistics, the philosophy of language and rhetoric, and confronting alternatives to it. Theory formation is shaped by application to fields of human activity - such as legal practice, artificial intelligence, psychoanalysis, the media, literature, aesthetics, ethics and politics - where interpretation and understanding are paramount. Using an accessible language, this is a book addressed to specialists as well as to anyone interested in interpreting understanding and understanding the potentialities and limits of interpretation.

From inside the book

Contents

Pragmatics and communicative intentions
3
CHAPTER
10
Conversational relevance
31
CHAPTER 3
52
CHAPTER 4
82
CHAPTER 5
101
CHAPTER 6
115
CHAPTER 12
145
CHAPTER 17
380
CHAPTER 18
402
CHAPTER 19
437
CHAPTER 20
457
CHAPTER 21
477
CHAPTER 22
497
CHAPTER 24
518
CHAPTER 25
537

CHAPTER 7
149
CHAPTER 8
169
CHAPTER 9
194
CHAPTER 10
213
CHAPTER 11
244
Three remarks on pragmatics and literature
273
CHAPTER 14
293
CHAPTER 15
314
CHAPTER 16
362
Does pragmatics need semantics?
562
CHAPTER 27
594
CHAPTER 29
623
CHAPTER 30
641
Sources and acknowledgments
660
Subject Index
695
Name Index
709
Copyright

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

Bibliographic information