On linguistic communication based on resemblance in form

초록

In relevance theory, it has been claimed that the sentence uttered underdetermines the proposition explicitly communicated by the speaker. In this paper, I present another case in which what is explicitly communicated is distinct from what is said. Sometimes an expression is used to evoke another expression which it resembles in form. For example, in Korean, aphmyen 'front side' may be used to evoke anmyen 'face' in anmyen molswu 'pretending not to recognize somebody.' I analyze this phenomenon as involving the use of one expression to loosely metarepresent another which it resembles in form. Assuming that the speaker may be unable or unwilling to convey her meaning more directly, the addressee recognizes the resemblance and infers the intended meaning from the expression used, together with contextual assumptions. The extra effort required will be compensated by extra cognitive effects. I argue that the loosely metarepresented expression contributes to the explicature of the utterance, and that the expression used in the utterance may contribute to (the derivation of) an implicature. This is another interesting case in which the explicature of the utterance is distinct from what is said, and where linguistic communication can be achieved by exploiting resemblance in form. (C) 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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