Questions on Relevance

The following questions (prepared by Isao Higashimori and answered by Deirdre Wilson) were used to introduce a general discussion on relevance theory at the end of a Relevance Theory Workshop organised by Yuji Nishiyama and Isao Higashimori at Keio University in March 1996. We would like to thank Yuji Nishiyama and the other organisers of the Keio Conference on the Interface between Grammar and Cognition, of which this Workshop formed a part. Many of the questions relate to changes proposed in the Postface to the second edition of Relevance (Sperber &Wilson 1995). Others relate to more general issues currently under discussion. We thought them worth circulating as a contribution to that discussion. 1 The second edition of Relevance 1.0 The second edition of Relevance preserved the original text, but added a Postface surveying recent developments in the theory and proposing several changes of terminology or substance. The following questions relate to the Postface, or to the explanator..