Expressivity and Relevance Theory

Abstract Relevance theory views communication as an intentional activity where meaning is communicated through direct and indirect types of evidence, as well as in determinate and indeterminate manners. This chapter explains how this pragmatic framework approaches the communication of expressive meaning in face-to-face interaction. After summarizing some of its claims and postulates, the chapter reviews the various categories of resources evincing expressive meaning: kinesics—i.e., postures, head movements, oculesics, haptics, and gesturality; paralanguage or vocalics—i.e., intonation, pitch, tempo, stress, and interjections; and linguistic resources—i.e., some morphemes, lexical items like some determiners, adjectives, participles, expletives, and insults, and sentential features such as exclamatory syntax or repetition. The chapter argues that the members of these categories differ as regards the evidence for expressive meaning which they offer, communicate this meaning in diverse fashions, and yield distinct cognitive outputs.