Keiko Tanaka wrote:
> >Dear all
> >
> >May I ask if someone could help me? I am working on a paper to be
> >presented at a conference entitled 'Language, the Media and
> >International Communication' to be held at Oxford in March-April 2001,
> >which is basically an extension of the work I have been doing on and off
> >for some time on language of the media. The paper is specifically about
> >a sort of play with a reference, as in the following example:
> >
> >'Maybe it was partly because the Princess of Wales was so beautiful, so
> >young, so transparently naive when she took part in that fairy-tale
> >wedding, that everyone hoped and believed the marriage would be a
>success..............
> >
> >Poor Princess Alexandra.' (from the 11 Dec. 1992 edition of the
>Independent')
> >
> >The author of this article intends the audience to access the late
> >Princess Diana when she uses the phrase 'the Princess of Wales', or
> >rather she did intend this reference at the time of writing the article,
> >and then intends to surprise them when she reveals that she is referring
> >to the previous Princess of Wales.
> >
> >I am probably being very ignorant, but I don't know what this type of
> >word play is called, but suspect that there most likely is a Greek word
> >for it. Could somebody please tell me what is it called? If there are
> >useful references among existing body of literature, could you please
> >also tell me?
> >
> >In anticipation, I thank you all very much.
> >
> >Yours sincerely,
> >Keiko Tanaka
Dear Keiko,
In anticipation of a neat Greek abbreviation, you might look to Levinson's
idea of generalized conversational implicature (GCI) (in, Presumptive
Meanings, 2000). Levinson uses this term to refer to inferences that an
audience makes in the absence of information to the contrary, but which can
conceivably be contradicted by the addition of such information. Inferences
of this form are described as nonmonotonic to distinguish them from those
rendered deductively, which lack the same sense of contingency.
Another way to put it is that GCI's operate as 'default logics', ie.,
inferences that are defeasible (or, when instantiated, nonmonotonic), but
which proceed via a reasonable, or ceteris paribus (all other things being
equal) assumption in the delivery of a given conclusion (see Levinson, 2000,
p. 42).
Obviously, this relates to the communicative norm itself, and not to its
exploitation at the hands of your Machiavellian author. It might be some
help though if you want to discuss the mutual participation of writer and
audience in that type of deception.
Cheers,
David Neal
Department of Psychology
University of Melbourne
Australia
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