Thoughts and Utterances

Robyn Carston is Reader in Linguistics at University College London. She is co-editor of Relevance Theory: Applications and Implications (1998).

Thoughts and Utterances is the first sustained investigation of two distinctions which are fundamental to all theories of utterance understanding: the semantics/pragmatics distinction and the distinction between what is explicitly communicated and what is implicitly communicated.
Features the first sustained investigation of both the semantics/pragmatics distinction and the distinction between what is explicitly and implicitly communicated in speech.

Thoughts and Utterances is the first sustained investigation of two distinctions which are fundamental to all theories of utterance understanding: the semantics/pragmatics distinction and the distinction between what is explicitly communicated and what is implicitly communicated.
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Introduction.
1. Pragmatics and Linguistic Underdeterminacy:.

Saying and Meaning.

The Underdeterminacy Thesis.

Eternal Sentences and Effability.

Metarepresentation, Relevance and Pragmatic Inference.

Underdeterminacy, Truth Conditions and the Semantics/Pragmatics Distinction.

Radical Underdeterminacy and the Background.

Underdeterminacy of Thought?.

Summary.

2. The Explicit/Implicit Distinction:.

Semantics/Pragmatics Distinction.

Grice: Saying/Implicating.

Sperber and Wilson: Relevance-theoretic Distinctions.

Travis and Recanati: Enriched 'What is Said .

Bach: What is Said/Impliciture/Implicature.

Pragmatic Meaning: Enrichment or Implicature?.

Postscript: Hidden Indexicals or 'Free Enrichment?.

Conclusion: From Generative Semantics to Pro-active Pragmatics.

3. The Pragmatics of And -Conjunction:.

Preserving the Truth-functionality of And .

A Relevance-based Pragmatics of Conjunction.

The Semantic Alternatives.

Cognitive Fundamentals: Causality and Explanation.

Relevance Relations and Units of Processing.

Processing Effort and Iconicity.

Residual Issues.

Conclusion: From Generalized Conversational Implicature.

4. The Pragmatics of Negation:.

Some Data and Some Distinctions.

Semantic Ambiguity Analyses.

Strong Pragmatic Analyses.

'Presupposition -cancelling Negation and Metalinguistic Negation.

The Pragmatics of 'Presupposition -Denial.

Conclusion: From Multiple Semantic Ambiguity to Univocal Semantics and Pragmatic Enrichment.

5. The Pragmatics of On-line Concept Construction:.

Encoded Concepts and Communicated Concepts.

A Symmetrical Account of Narrowing and Broadening.

Metaphor: Loose Use and Ad Hoc Concepts.

Word Meaning and Concepts.

Conclusion: The Long Road from Linguistically Encoded Meaning to the Thought(s) Explicitly Communicated.

Appendix 1: Relevance Theory Glossary.

Appendix 2: Gricean Conversational Principles.

References.

Index.