Directional inferences and the conceptual/procedural encoding distinction
Jacques Mœschler · 1998
In this paper, I present an original model of discourse interpretation combining procedural, conceptual and contextual information. This model has been developped to explain the interpretation of discourse relations, such as Narration, Explanation, Elaboration, etc. used in discourse semantics. The basic principle is that utterance and discourse interpretation results from combining directional features conventionally assigned to lexical and non-lexical material. Directional features have two directions, forward and backward, and two degrees of strength, strong and weak. Principles of compatibility function as instructions on the way of predicting the conventionally conveyed interpretation. Any of the linguistically projectable interpretations must be validated by a contextual assumption. Thus the directional inference model claims (i) that contextual information is stronger than linguistic information and (ii) that procedural information is stronger than conceptual information. Predictions of the directional inference model will be sketched. The conceptual/procedural distinction and the representation of events In Relevance Theory (RT), a major distinction is made between two types of linguistically encoded information: conceptual information and procedural information (Sperber & Wilson 1993a). The