A Relevance-based Study Of The Use And Comprehension Of The English Intonation

The present thesis is to make a specific analysis of the use and comprehension of the English intonation in the light of the ostensive-inferential communication model and the principle of relevance from the perspective of the Relevance Theory.The thesis, based on the ostensive-inferential communication model, analyzes the use and comprehension of the English intonation. The integral communication includes ostension and inference. The author clings to the belief that the use of the English intonation, as a form of the communication, is a kind of the ostensive behavior. The speaker, yielding the ostensive action with the intonation, tries to realize two aims: the first one is to activate a set of relevant contextual assumptions in the hearer's mind, and the second one is to make her informative intention manifest to the hearer. The speaker intentionally restricts the inferential procedure of the hearer with the English intonation: as a manner of ostension, the English intonation can help the hearer approach to the intended context and access to the contextual assumption, emphasizing the propositional information, strengthening the force of the propositional content and expressing attitudes towards the propositional content, which accordingly decreases the processing effort of the hearer, constraints the inferential process and then helps the hearer to infer the true meaning of the speaker's utterance and to achieve the successful communication.In addition, the thesis, based on the Principle of Relevance, analyzes the use and comprehension of the English intonation in terms of the deductive inference. The author holds that the use of the English intonation contributes to indicate the relationship between the context and the utterance. And also, in the communicative process, the speaker's utterance always has a reliable presumption of relevance and the appropriate intonation indicates the presumption of relevance with which the speaker often restricts the hearer in choosing contextual assumptions. Moreover, in the communicative process, the speaker necessarily communicates the stimulus that is relevant enough to be worth the hearer's attention and the hearer automatically expects that the stimulus is optimally relevant to him. He can make full use of the relation which is supplied by the English intonation and combine his own cognitive environment with the relevant information which is provided by the speaker and then he can realize optimal relevance and the informative intention of the speaker. Besides, the English intonation indicates the relevance, which is achieved by expressing irrelevant contextual assumptions. According to the Relevance Theory, if the utterance has the contextual effect, the utterance is relevant. In fact, the utterance itself which seems to express an irrelevant assumption may be very relative, and the relevance also can be realized through presenting the irrelevant assumption in the utterance, as long as the communicative action itself is relevant.