Stylistic Analysis and Relevance Theory

This article suggests a methodology for analysing the communicative effects of texts, based on relevance theory. It begins with a statement of some inferential conclusions which can be reached as a result of reading the text (in this case, Little Things by Raymond Carver) and then works backwards in an attempt to explain exactly how those inferences have been made. The methodology is useful in classes which focus on literature, on stylistics, or on linguistic meanings (semantics and pragmatics). It also focuses attention on important aspects of relevance theory, such as the distinctions between implications and implicatures and between strong and weak implicatures.