Dear Friends and Colleagues,
I am attending a conference on 'Cognitive Typology' next month and
wondering whether there is any RT work - or even just theoretical musings -
on the following sorts of questions:
If the Principle of Relevance applies universally to all human
information/discourse processing (as it does in my understanding of it) at
what 'level' short of the varying surface morphology of languages might we
expect variation in cognitive mechanisms from one (linguistic, cultural?)
community to another?
Put somewhat differently, do RT theorists see any grounds for recognising
some intermediate organisation of representations (prototypes, schemas; use
of metonymy or metaphor) which might be shown to vary significantly
cross-culturally or cross-linguistically? Is knowledge organisation on the
tentative RT account - in logical, lexical and encyclopaedic entries -
deemed to be universal, or if not, might there be interesting or
significant differences?
An answer on the theoretical part would be great even without any empirical
suggestions.
I'd be grateful for any references (or, dare I ask, new thoughts) on this.
Thanks in advance.
Robin Setton
PS Change of address (below): I am now at the School of Translation and
Interpretation in Geneva, where I hope to introduce my students to a
relevance-theoretical approach to translation/interpretation theory (We
have just launched separate DEAs (Diplome d'Etudes Approfondies) in
translation and interpretation, in preparation for a PhD program).
Prof. Robin Setton
Unité d'Interprétation
Ecole de traduction et d'interprétation
Université de Genève
Boulevard du Pont d'Arve 40
CH-1211 Genève 4
Tél. +41 22 705 87 53
FAX +41 22 781 62 21 Setton
E-mail Robin.Setton@eti.unige.ch
http://www.unige.ch/eti/interpretation
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