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Title:
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On the Cognitive Role of Genre: A relevance-theoretic perspective
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Author:
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Christoph Unger
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Email:
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Degree Awarded:
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University College London
, PhD in Linguistics
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Degree Date:
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2001
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Linguistic Subfield(s):
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Pragmatics
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Director(s):
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Deirdre Wilson
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Abstract:
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This thesis considers the widely-held view that the interpretation of utterances in a text or discourse may be affected by the type of text or discourse they occur in. In Part I, I consider the claim that properties of the discourse type or genre may affect the interpretation of linguistic markers such as tense and aspect indicators by putting constraints on the global coherence of the discourse. Surveying a wide variety of notions of global coherence, I argue that this notion cannot be made precise. In Part II, I consider the role of expectations of relevance in discourse, and argue that the data which a theory of global coherence is designed to explain can be better explained by appeal to expectations of relevance, and that genre information is best analysed as contributing to the development of such expectations. This discussion sharpens and extends central aspects of relevance theory. In Part III, I discuss the further claim that genre knowledge may facilitate the recovery of implicatures. This brings into question the status of theories of genre in inferential theories of communication. Comparing systemic-functional register and genre theory and Gricean accounts of genre, I argue that the effects of genre on the recovery of implicatures are best explained by an inferential account of genre, and that such effects - where they exist - are best seen as resulting from the interaction of encyclopaedic (cultural) information with the management of expectations of relevance in discourse, rather than from genre-based adjustments of specific conversational maxims. My account of genre effects in communication has two main consequences for relevance theory: first, it refines our view of the management of expectations of relevance, and second, it elaborates on the status of relevance theory as an inferential theory of communication.
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