Communication and levels of meaning

Olivier Simonin (1)

1 CRESEM - Centre de Recherche sur les Sociétés et Environnements en Méditerranées

Drawing on some major insights in linguistic pragmatics (Grice 1989; Sperber and Wilson [1986] 1995), this paper offers a taxonomy of complex semantic content. Three main classes are distinguished, depending on the level at which communication takes place: (1) the standard level of communication, on which ordinary conversation relies and to which narration corresponds in literature (metaphors are communicated at this level); (2) a superimposed level at which implicit indications can be given concerning the hidden structure of a piece or its symbolic meaning (parallels and allegories); (3) no communication actually occurs in the last category—rather, inferences relevant to interpretation are drawn from indications not unlike those one leaves with the tone of one’s voice.

Domains: Humanities and Social Sciences; Linguistics

Olivier Simonin. Communication and levels of meaning. Journal of Literary Semantics, 2004, 33 (1), ⟨10.1515/jlse.2004.003⟩. ⟨hal-02430317⟩