The Principle of Relevance in French press discourse on the example of the noun message

Elżbieta Pachocińska

Uniwersytet Warszawski

Abstract

This paper concentrates on the functions of the noun message in press discourse. It is shown that by using this noun the journalist or politician fulfills the Principle of Relevance (Sperber, Wilson 1989) by focusing the attention of lecturer/hearer on his informative and communicative intentions, the most important from his perspective. These intentions are interpreted as a sense of message, in discursive terms: quotations, indirect speech, explications, reformulations, markers of intertextuality and interdiscursivity. The last purpose of this paper is to analyse some aspects of nonverbal political message. The journalist interprets the sense of gestures, behaviour, decisions, etc., which convey some political meaning through the recognition of informative and communicative intentions of politicians in specific context in which communication takes place.

Keywords:

the Principle of Relevance, French press discourse, meaning of the noun message, semiotic message