A Study On Absurd Exchanges From The Perspective Of Relevance Theory

Real communication is not always rational.Conditions of impulse,unconsciousness and the loss of control should not be ignored.It is a case of non-exchange between communicators under the state of irrationality.Absurd exchanges refer to non-exchange with twisted process in which misfires are hardly to be repaired.The reverse thinking,absurd way of reasoning,ridiculous argument basis and freak logic paradox are highlighted in the narrative and discourse level of Alice series novels-Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through Looking-glass which provide ideal linguistic data for the study of irrational communication.This thesis aims to explore relevance and misfires in communication between rational person(Alice)and irrational person(animals)under the theoretical framework of Relevance Theory.From Sperber and Wilson's point of view,irrelevant contextual assumptions refer to empty contextual effect with consuming much processing effort;relevance is achieved through the act of expressing irrelevant assumptions,which is relevant in some degree.Absurd exchanges produce empty contextual effect and the act itself is not relevant at all.In this thesis,the notion relevance is seen as a continuum of absurd,irrelevance and relevance;absurd exchanges come closest to zero relevance.It is found out that in the level of explicature,phonetic ambiguity,semantic ambiguity,referent displacement and referent ambiguity will bring about misfires in communication;logical absurdity and presupposition clash may impede hearer's inference in implicature;meanwhile,in two party and multiparty communication,non-cooperative way exerts impeditive influence on the establishment of relevance,leading to zero relevance so that communication fails.Under the framework of Relevance Theory,this thesis explores misfires in communication by analysis of numerous absurd exchanges in Alice series novels.The exploration on relevance continuum contributes to the development of Relevance Theory and will induce more researchers to have further study on irrational communication.