Communication in relevance theory

Sperber and Wilson (1995) ground their definition of communication on their criticism of Grice's intentional definition of non-natural meaning. In such a perspective, communication is considered as an act rather than as a process. Sperber and Wilson propose two definitions of this fundamental concept. In a first time, they argue that communication involves two specific intentions; afterwards, they equate it with ostension. This paper examines and criticizes their proposals, confronting them to ordinary intuition. Some crucial issues are discussed: the equivalence of Sperber and Wilson's two definitions, the nature of the evidence used in communication, the intentionality of communication, the content of the communicative intention, the notion of mutual manifestness, and the problem of infinite regress.Research supported by Fonds National de la Recherche Scientifique (Belgium)

Kallikrein-related peptidase 6 regulates epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition and serves as prognostic biomarker for head and neck squamous cell carcinoma patients

Background: Dysregulated expression of Kallikrein-related peptidase 6 (KLK6) is a common feature for many human malignancies and numerous studies evaluated KLK6 as a promising biomarker for early diagnosis or unfavorable prognosis. However, the expression of KLK6 in carcinomas derived from mucosal epithelia, including head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC), and its mode of action has not been addressed so far. Methods: Stable clones of human mucosal tumor cell lines were generated with shRNA-mediated silencing or ectopic overexpression to characterize the impact of KLK6 on tumor relevant processes in vitro. Tissue microarrays with primary HNSCC samples from a retrospective patient cohort (n = 162) were stained by immunohistochemistry and the correlation between KLK6 staining and survival was addressed by univariate Kaplan-Meier and multivariate Cox proportional hazard model analysis. Results: KLK6 expression was detected in head and neck tumor cell lines (FaDu, Cal27 and SCC25), but not in HeLa cervix carcinoma cells. Silencing in FaDu cells and ectopic expression in HeLa cells unraveled an inhibitory function of KLK6 on tumor cell proliferation and mobility. FaDu clones with silenced KLK6 expression displayed molecular features resembling epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition, nuclear β-catenin accumulation and higher resistance against irradiation. Low KLK6 protein expression in primary tumors from oropharyngeal and laryngeal SCC patients was significantly correlated with poor progression-free (p = 0.001) and overall survival (p < 0.0005), and served as an independent risk factor for unfavorable clinical outcome. Conclusions: In summary, detection of low KLK6 expression in primary tumors represents a promising tool to stratify HNSCC patients with high risk for treatment failure. These patients might benefit from restoration of KLK6 expression or pharmacological targeting of signaling pathways implicated in EMT

Haverkate (Henk). La cortesia verbal. Estudio pragmalinguistico.

Franken Nathalie. Haverkate (Henk). La cortesia verbal. Estudio pragmalinguistico.. In: Revue belge de philologie et d'histoire, tome 73, fasc. 3, 1995. Langues et littératures modernes - Moderne taal-en letterkunde. pp. 868-871

Vagueness and approximation in relevance theory

Relevance theory (Sperber and Wilson, 1986) analyzes vagueness and approximation as instances of loose talk, which involve less than literal interpretations of thoughts. This approach has been developed by Reboul (1989), who tried to account for the interpretive use of concepts. This paper evaluates these proposals and shows that they leave many questions unanswered, especially about the very nature of interpretive use and the identification of speech acts. It is also claimed that vagueness and approximation should be dealt with separately. First, vagueness cannot be reduced to an instance of loose talk. When examining the evidential basis of vague utterances and when analyzing the interpretation processes at work, one realizes that it is necessary to posit the existence of vague concepts. Secondly, in order to account for approximation, one has to rely on assumptions concerning the way people ordinarily speak about certain things. However, it is possible to elaborate, in the framework of relevance theory, an alternative account of vagueness and approximation which proves more satisfying even though it does not succeed in solving all the problems involved.SCOPUS: ar.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Épidictique et discours expressif

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Speech Acts and Relevance Theory

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