Dear All,
I would like to ask a few questions: any feedback is welcome and really appreciated. Thank you in advance.
First of all, I would like to know how longer pieces of discourse, such as a whole speech or a series of speeches can be analysed from an RT perspective. It is true that one can take into consideration the main principles put forth by RT and try to apply them, but I am more interested in a more linguistic analysis. Does anybody know of the existence of any articles on this subject?
Then, it is well established that processing effort and positive cognitive effects are key-concepts in RT. Are there any articles on this subject? (I am not talking about Dan Sperber's et. al articles about testing the cognitive Principle of Relevance).
My question related to this topic is:
How can one test these two aspects from a linguistic perspective, when it comes to speeches, or longer conversations?
One can easily create a hypothesis about what happens in an example such as the following: one is running for her bus in the morning, with the following thoughts, i. e the context (example quoted here from Lecture 3 of Pragmatics Online course 2003-2004; D. Wilson)
Context:
4a. I'll (probably) catch the bus.
4b. If I catch the bus, I'll get to the lecture in time.
4c. If I don't catch the bus, I won't get to the lecture in time.
As you arrive at the bus stop, you see the bus come round the corner towards you, and conclude:
Input to cognitive processes
5 I WILL catch the bus.
The input in (5), when processed in the (artificial) context in (4a-c), has two positive cognitive effects. It strengthens the contextual assumption in (4a); and it combines with the assumption in (4b) to yield the contextual implication in (6)."
So in this situation things are somewhat easier to analyse. What can one say when trying to analyse a speech? Since the researcher cannot (due to reasons beyond his control) analyse the H's direct response and thoughts, what linguistic elements can be used to asses Relevance. Of course, the final analysis should take into account more than the linguistic aspects of the analysed speech; it should combine it with background knowledge, assumptions, beliefs, and so on.
Thirdly, it is established that there are some factors that can influence Relevance, length of utterance, frequency of a particular element to name just a few. Could anyone suggest me some references related to this subject?
Fourthly, I would like to know about any references in which one links RT with Rhetorics (I am not talking about RT approach to irony and so on, but Rhetorics and Argumentation, for example)
Thanks for your attention.
Many, many thanks
Anabella-Gloria Niculescu-Gorpin
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