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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 book seeks to show that relevance theory 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.
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Paradigms of Reading Relevance Theory and Deconstruction
Ian MacKenzie
Paradigms of Reading
pour/maRijc/ and, more pertinently, Kirsten
Paradigms of Reading Relevance Theory and Deconstruction Ian MacKenzie
macmillan
© Ian MacKenzie 2002 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1T 4LP. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2002 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 Companies and representatives throughout the world PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the Palgrave Macmillan division of St. Martin’s Press, LLC and of Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. Macmillan® is a registered trademark in the United States, United Kingdom and other countries. Palgrave is a registered trademark in the European Union and other countries. ISBN 0–333–96833–6 This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress 10 11
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Printed and bound in Great Britain by Antony Rowe Ltd, Chippenham and Eastbourne
Contents Acknowledgements
vii
Bibliographical Abbreviations
viii
1 Pragmatic Banality and Honourable Bigotry Synopsis Honourable bigotry
1 6 11
2 Relevance Theory and Spoken Communication Linguistic underdetermination Ostension, inference, intentions and relevance Implicatures, vagueness and poetic effects Metaphor and irony, description and interpretation
16 17 18 22 25
3 ‘Positive Hermeneutics’: Relevance and Communication The hermeneutic tradition Communicative intentions The epidemiology of representations The reader as supplement
29 33 36 41 44
4 ‘Negative Hermeneutics’: Themes, Figures, Codes and Cognition Unconscious identities Reading and time Canonicity Codes and inference Carvers and modellers
47 48 50 53 55 60
5 Words, Concepts and Tropes Nouns and concepts Metaphor, truth, lies, realistic assumptions and surplus value Numbers Dead metaphors and catachreses 6 Rhetoric as an Insurmountable Obstacle ‘What’s the difference?’, ‘Son of a bitch!’ and catastrophic confusions Rhetoric and aesthetics v
62 65 69 74 76 84 86 90
vi
Contents
Tropes and persuasion Irony Resistance to language
95 98 101
7 Words and the World: The Problem of Reference Being and beco