Relevance theory and textual interpretation: an illustration through texts of humor
Abstract
The purpose of this article is to present the basic concepts of Relevance Theory by Sperber and Wilson (1995) on text interpretation. Humor texts were chosen to do the analyses for didactic reasons, since they are normally shorter than other kinds of texts, the possible blanks presented during the interpretative process are more evident and can be easily completed. On these analyses, under Relevance prism, the fundamental importance of cognitive context is emphasized on inferential process construction to comprehension, remembering that interpretation, beyond explicit text, requires cognitive and perceptual abilities. These analyses represent possible ways to go along on teaching textual interpretation, since many teachers presume students know these ways, what in most of the cases is a wrong idea thus; they don't treat this subject in a significant way, configuring one of the hardest problems of present-day education.Keywords
Relevance Theory, Implicature, Inference, Textual Interpretation, Education
Author Biography
Marcos Goldnade
PhD in Linguistics and Letters from the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul. Adjunct professor at the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul
Rita de Cássia Oliveira
Master's degree in Literature at the Pontifícia Universicade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul.
References
CORAL, Ruth de Farias. Progressão Temática em Entrevista de Anthony Garotinho a Boris Casoy: Análise com base na Teoria da Relevância. 2003. 104 f. Dissertação (Mestrado em Ciências da Linguagem) Universidade do Sul de Santa Catarina, Florianópolis, 2003.
RAUEN, Fábio José. Teoria da Relevância e Ensino: Reflexões sobre processos de compreensão em atividades escolares. Caderno Seminal Digital, Rio de Janeiro, v.7 n.7, 2007.
SILVEIRA, Jane Rita Caetano da. A imagem: Interpretação e Comunicação. Revista Linguagem em (Dis)curso, v.5, 2005. n. especial
SILVEIRA, Jane Rita Caetano da; FELTES, Heloísa Pedroso de Moraes. Pragmática e cognição: a textualidade pela relevância e outros ensaios. 3. ed. Porto Alegre: DIPUCRS, 2002.
SPERBER, Dan, WILSON, Deirdre. Relevance: communication and cognition. 2.ed. Cambridge, USA: Blackwell, 1995