Searching for Relevance: Pragmatics and Affective Science

Contemporary theories of pragmatics have yielded powerful insights into communication. Yet a central explanatory gap remains: many affective aspects of utterance interpretation still lack a satisfactory account. This project takes this explanatory gap as its central concern. It is built around an ongoing collaboration with colleagues from the Swiss Centre of Affective Sciences (CISA) and, using innovative interdisciplinary methods developed by linguists and affective scientists seeks to develop an interdisciplinary theory of utterance interpretation that integrates affect as a core component.

The project identifies two influential theories – Relevance Theory, a cognitively oriented theory of pragmatics – and Appraisal Theory – a psychologically oriented approach to the study of affect – and argue that by merging aspects of each theory we can provide an account of the affective dimension that is currently missing. In so doing, we aim to develop a lasting, sustainable collaboration between researchers in both disciplines, promoting an innovative research agenda with genuinely interdisciplinary implications.

While they diverge on what precisely is meant by the term, both theories have a notion of ‘relevance’ at their core. It is this notion that provides the common ground between the two disciplines that the project seeks to explore. Our aim is to identify the single notion of relevance that will bring relevance theory and appraisal theory together, thus uniting the study of pragmatics and the study of affect.