LINGUIST List 13.1542

Wed May 29 2002

Books: Linguistic Theories:Paradigms of Reading

Editor for this issue: Dina Kapetangianni <dinalinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. Barnett Polly, Paradigms of Reading: Relevance Theory and Deconstruction

PARADIGMS OF READING
Relevance Theory and Deconstruction

Ian MacKenzie

ABOUT THE BOOK

Linguistic signs do not coincide with intended or interpreted
meanings. For relevance theory, this theoretical commonplace merely
demonstrates the inferential nature of language. For Paul de Man, on
the contrary, it suggested that language is unstable, random,
arbitrary, mechanical, ironic and inhuman. This lively and bold new
book explores relevance theory with plenty of illustrated examples to
show that it is a more plausible account of communication, cognition
and literary interpretation than the deconstructionist theory de Man
elaborated from readings of Rousseau, Hegel and Nietzsche. Its
provocative and groundbreaking approach will force the reader to
question the value for deconstructionist theory for interpreting
literary texts in favour of a pragmatic theory from Linguistics.

CONTENTS:
Pragmatic Banality and Honourable Bigotry
Relevance Theory and Spoken Communication
'Positive Hermeneutics': Relevance and Communication
'Negative Hermeneutics': Themes, Figures, Codes and Cognition
Rhetoric, Blindness, Allegory, Ideology, Resistance
Words, Concepts and Tropes
Rhetoric as an Insurmountable Obstacle
Words and the World: The Problem of Reference
Mechanical Performatives
The Madness of Words and the Enunciating Subject
'When Lucy ceas'd to be'
Conclusion: Rhetoric and Relevance
Notes
Bibliography
Index

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

IAN MACKENZIE is an English language teacher, teacher trainer and
coursebook writer and the author of numerous articles on linguistics
and literary theory. He teaches at the Haute Ecole de Gestion,
Lausanne.

Published by Palgrave August 2002 272 pp 216x138mm
Hardback �50.00 $68.00 0-333-96833-6

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