In response to Fantin's questions
Yes, RT is relevant in this case. (And, I would argue, in any communication in the real/"real" world!)
And, yes, I think the implicatures derived from the statement "X is lord" do depend on the elements of the cognitive environment which locate X and the speaker in the world, as suggested by the list 1-4. And that the extra effort required to process "Agrippa is the one supreme lord" implies that the extra cognitive effect (that this is a challenge to the status quo) is part of the speaker's intention.
I would want to add to the list (or perhaps refine and explicate no.3) that, RT being thoroughly pragmatic, it depends just as much, perhaps more, on "to whom" the statement is made - i.e. the cognitive environment of the audience. The speaker, working instinctively within the principle of relevance, chooses words that optimise the relevance of his/her intended meaning for the audience in the audience's cognitive environment. It is this audience-centred approach, or perhaps better expressed as using the audience's perception of relevance as a clue to the author's intentions, that I have found most helpful in my application of RT to biblical text. (In my PhD thesis, "The People of God in the Apocalypse: A Relevance-Theoretic Study", Otago University, NZ, 2000)
I'm not sure which direction you are heading with this enquiry, but from my perspective I think your example suggests that RT has much to offer on the vexed question of the use of "kyrios" in the Gospels. This is not only a theological issue, but is a particular problem in translation into languages where there is no word having the same semantic range as "kyrios" - from "sir" through "owner" to "Supreme Overlord". Who is speaking (the author of the written text, the passer-on of oral tradition, the character in the narrative, or the character within the parable within the narrative) and to whom are they addressing their speech, or their narrative? Answers to these questions must set up relevance conditions for the implicatures to be derived from the use of "kyrios". And given the history of the text, there are probably resonances on several levels. But in each case optimal relevance will be a discriminating tool.
Regards
Stephen Pattemore
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Stephen Pattemore
UBS Translation Consultant
12 Colin Wild Pl., Glenfield, Auckland 1310, N.Z.
ph: (+ 64 9) 441 9298
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