What Words Mean Is a Matter of What People Mean by Them*

Wharton, Tim

doi:10.1590/1982-4017-140302-0214

Cited by 5 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 39 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Following the above description and in the simplest case, it is expected that an interpreter would follow a path of least effort in interpreting an utterance and that he would stop at the first interpretation that he found relevant enough (WHARTON, 2014). The L2 interpreter's selection of one 'relevant enough' interpretation, however, may not be a result of having discarded hypotheses that were less relevant, but a result of their restricted access to these interpretive hypotheses (PADILLA CRUZ, 2013; WHARTON, 2014).…”

Section: /17mentioning

confidence: 94%

“…Learners relying on the linguistic as a starting point and cue to meaning are bound to fail in attributing the right intentions to the speaker and in recovering the intended interpretation. Macnamara's thesis and inferential pragmatics share the underpinning idea that utterance interpretation is not just about understanding what the words mean but what the speaker intends to communicate in using these words (GRICE, 1975;WILSON, 1986, WHARTON, 2014. We believe that L2 pragmatics instruction should be anchored in the idea that the speaker herself and her intentions is the starting point and the guiding line of utterance interpretation, because, ultimately, the point is to recover the utterer's meaning.…”

Section: Inferential Pragmatics and Top-down Processing In Lcomprehenmentioning

confidence: 95%

“…We believe that L2 pragmatics instruction should be anchored in the idea that the speaker herself and her intentions is the starting point and the guiding line of utterance interpretation, because, ultimately, the point is to recover the utterer's meaning. These parallels between the topdown processes at work in lexical acquisition and those at work in inferential comprehension are further highlighted by Wharton (2014) who sees lexical acquisition as an exercise of a pragmatic ability. He draws on Bloom's claim (2001a;2001b) that children's sensitivity to the mental states of others causes them to work out what it is that communicators intend to refer to when they use this or that word, thereby playing a central role in the process of lexical acquisition.…”

Section: Inferential Pragmatics and Top-down Processing In Lcomprehenmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…The essential idea is that what focuses the hearer's attention on the speaker's intentions are the speaker's natural, ostensive, nonverbal behaviours that inevitably accompany speech (e.g. tone of voice, gesture, facial expression, head movement), often known as paralinguistic phenomena (WHARTON, 2014(WHARTON, , 2016. They provide cues to the intended meaning of the words the speaker has chosen to use.…”

Section: Inferential Pragmatics and Top-down Processing In Lcomprehenmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Prosodic Pointing in inferential comprehension: the application of Relevance Theory to L2 listening instruction

Madella

Romero-Trillo

2019

Letronica

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The interface between pragmatics and prosody has been shown to be significant in intercultural communication (RIESCO BERNIER; ROMERO-TRILLO, 2008; ROMERO-TRILLO, 2002, 2012, 2015, 2019). In this paper, we re-evaluate the pragmatics-prosody interface on the grounds that prosody is seldom interpreted independently from accompanying gesture, facial modification and head movement. To enhance L2 hearers’ pragmatic competence, or what we define as attentional and inferential abilities, we introduce prosodic pointing as an ostensive phenomenon inclusive of both vocal and visual paralinguistic features used synchronously to communicate and interpret one’s intentions. We believe that the way relevance mechanisms (SPERBER; WILSON, 1986; WHARTON, 2014) focus the hearer on the speaker’s ostensive nonverbal behaviours, for him to use them as cues to speaker meaning, can be exploited in L2 listening instruction that aims to develop epistemic vigilance (SPERBER 1994; PADILLA CRUZ, 2013) and pragmatic competence in Chinese hearers of L2 English. In English, you can show disagreement by saying ‘Yes, he \was’. In Chinese, however, ‘yes’ always means agreement. Chinese speakers typically disagree by saying ‘No, he was’, thus potentially causing misunderstanding. We investigate how introducing prosodic pointing to Chinese L2 learners can help in fine-tuning their epistemic vigilance in L2 English through an intervention study involving input and immediate recall sessions. The results show (i) evidence of Chinese interpreters of L2 English fine-tuning their epistemic vigilance and, as result, the important role of prosodic pointing in enhancing their pragmatic competence, and (ii) the need for further relevance-based L2 instructional studies focused on enhancing inferential and interpretive competence in hearers of L2 English.***Apontamento prosódico na compreensão inferencial: a aplicação da Teoria da Relevância à instrução auditiva L2***A interface entre pragmática e prosódia tem se mostrado significativa em comunicação intercultural (RIESCO BERNIER; ROMERO-TRILLO, 2008; ROMERO-TRILLO, 2002, 2012, 2015, 2019). Neste artigo, nós reavaliamos a interface pragmática-prosódica assumindo que a prosódia é raramente interpretada de maneira independente de gestos, modificações faciais e movimentos de cabeça. A fim de aprimorar a competência pragmática do ouvinte em L2, ou o que definimos como habilidades inferencial e de atenção, introduzimos o conceito de indicação gestual-prosódica (prosodic pointing) como uma ferramenta baseada na relevância que inclui características tanto segmentais como paralinguísticas, usadas sincronizadamente para comunicar a intenção do falante. Acreditamos que a maneira como mecanismos de relevância (SPERBER; WILSON, 1986, WHARTON, 2014) fazem o ouvinte focar em comportamentos ostensivos não verbais - a fim de que ele as use como pistas para o significado do falante - pode informar instruções de compreensão oral em L2 que busquem desenvolver a competência pragmática e a vigilância epistêmica (PADILLA CRUZ, 2013) em falantes chineses de inglês como L2. Em inglês, você pode mostrar discordância ao dizer ‘sim, ele \foi’. Em chinês, no entanto, ‘sim’ sempre significa concordância. Falantes chineses normalmente expressam discordância ao dizer ‘Não, ele foi’, o que potencialmente pode causar um mal-entendido. Nós investigamos como a introdução de ‘instruções prosódicas’ para chineses aprendizes de L2 pode aprimorar a competência pragmática e a vigilância epistêmica através de um estudo de intervenção com uma combinação de metodologias que envolvem testes de recepção, testes de compreensão oral e testes de recordação. Os estudos mostram (i) a necessidade de instruções que coloquem o aprendiz de L2 em um papel direto de ouvinte a fim de que sua atenção selecione as pistas ostensivas do falante e as use em seu processo deinterpretação e (ii) a importância de melhorar as instruções de compreensão inferencial partindo de estudos de L2 baseados na relevância.

show abstract

Section: /17mentioning

confidence: 94%

Section: Inferential Pragmatics and Top-down Processing In Lcomprehenmentioning

confidence: 95%

Section: Inferential Pragmatics and Top-down Processing In Lcomprehenmentioning

confidence: 97%

Section: Inferential Pragmatics and Top-down Processing In Lcomprehenmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Prosodic Pointing in inferential comprehension: the application of Relevance Theory to L2 listening instruction

Madella

Romero-Trillo

2019

Letronica

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Relevance

Wharton¹

2018

The International Encyclopedia of Anthropology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The “frame” problem in logic presents the following challenge: produce a logical formula that describes the effects of a particular action without having to write corresponding formulae for the trivially obvious noneffects of that action. The problem has epistemological consequences. When processing a new fact, how do we sift through the vast amount of irrelevant information we have at our disposal and decide what is relevant? This entry addresses this question by focusing on the concept of relevance as used in Dan Sperber and Deirdre Wilson's relevance theory. Relevance theory is an approach to cognition and communication that has had a huge influence not only in pragmatics but also in a range of different disciplines. The entry places the theory in its historical context, presents the central tenets of the theory, and explores a range of applications that relevance theory has in the natural and social sciences.

show abstract

Relevance Theory and Communication Atypicalities

Ifantidou,

Wharton

2024

The Handbook of Clinical Linguistics, Second Edition

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

What Words Mean Is a Matter of What People Mean by Them*

Cited by 5 publications

References 39 publications

Prosodic Pointing in inferential comprehension: the application of Relevance Theory to L2 listening instruction

Prosodic Pointing in inferential comprehension: the application of Relevance Theory to L2 listening instruction

Relevance

Relevance Theory and Communication Atypicalities

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About