RE: RT list: inference in encoding?

Hi,

Just butting in a bit on the discussion which Mai's message started.
Mai's question, about how communicators choose which linguistic form to
use, is closely connected to the question I asked on behalf of myself
and Nicky, about the inferences writers make when choosing what to
write. Ernst-August makes some useful comments which show he's thinking
along similar lines to us. We also think that there's a sense in which
the communicator's inferential task is more complex than the
interpreter's. Quoting ourselves (in an abstract we just submitted),
'Communicators need to make assumptions not only about which assumptions
will be manifest to addressees but also about what addressees will do
when presented with the evidence provided by their utterances'.

We're focusing particularly on writing partly because there's quite a
lot of informal discussion among writers about these inferences (even
though they don't always recognise this explicitly) and partly because
of our interest in applying these ideas in teaching.

We're aware of work on production in general, but there seems to be very
little specifically on the inferences made by communicators, which makes
us a bit nervous that we're missing something. One source we are
referring to, of course, is Ernst-August's work on translation, which
has a lot to say about all of this.

So do let us know if you come across anything else you think we should
know about.

Thanks and best wishes,

Billy
Received on Fri Jan 23 09:02:58 2009