11 Assertion, Relevance and the Declarative Mood

Abstract

This chapter outlines the standard Relevance-Theory approach to mood, as well as discussing other claims that have been made for a procedural semantics for the declarative. It claims that the declarative delivers up a propositional representation in a format that, other things being equal, makes it likely that this will be employed as a premise in derivation of contextual effects, thereby making a direct contribution to the relevance of the utterance in its own right. First, this approach explains why only the declarative can be used to assert the proposition explicitly expressed by utterance, a fact that is not explained by the standard Relevance-Theory account of mood. Second, it explains the relationship between assertion and main-point status without identifying the two. The chapter highlights some weaknesses in these proposals and then details those aspects of Relevance Theory central to the current account, before presenting this in some detail. Keywords: assertion; contextual effects; declarative mood; main-point status; procedural semantics; relevance theory

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