Bridging and Relevance (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Bridging and relevance by Tomoko Matsui Carlos Inchaurralde Bridging and relevance. By Tomoko Matsui. (Pragmatics and beyond series.) Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 2000. Pp. xi, 247. Cloth $83.00. This book deals with bridging reference assignment, addressing it from the perspective of relevance theory. Bridging reference is introduced through the notion of bridging implicature which, according to the author, is ‘a contextual assumption, warranted by the explicit content of previous discourse, needed to introduce an intended referent which has not itself been explicitely mentioned’ (199). After Ch. 1, ‘Introduction’ (1–23), and Ch. 2, ‘Relevance theory’ (25–49), which give a brief introduction to the topic and summarize the central claims of relevance theory, the book goes on to discuss explanations based on the accessibility of candidate referents (Ch. 3, ‘Bridging reference assignment and accessibility of discourse entities’, 51–91); the role of contextual assumptions in the interpretation of bridging (Ch. 4, ‘Accessibility of bridging assumptions and other contextual assumptions’, 93–130); and the factors affecting its acceptability (Ch. 5, ‘Acceptability judgments for bridging reference’, 131–96). Factors governing referent accessibility according to past studies include order of mention, syntactic position, recency of mention, semantics of main verb, parallel function and choice of conjunction, manner of mention, and overall salience. Matsui claims that these factors do not explain all the data since the accessibility of candidate referents is not the only necessary condition for bridging reference assignment. Another crucial factor affecting the hearer’s choice of referent is the accessibility of contextual assumptions. Anthony Sanford and Simon Garrod’s scenario-based account, in which both bridging implicatures and contextual assumptions are accessed before the hearer encounters the bridging reference, is considered inferior to Dan Sperber and Deirdre Wilson’s relevance theory, in which the selection of the right referent is made as part of the overall interpretation process. Sperber and Wilson’s approach explains well how the hearer can access contextual assumptions that do not fall within an activated scenario, as happens in some of the examples discussed by M, which either require contextual assumptions not provided by the currently activated scenario or which require more than one scenario simultaneously for referent selection. These examples cannot be analyzed well according to Sanford and Garrod’s theory. As for factors affecting acceptability judgments, we are told that a hearer will find a bridging reference stylistically infelicitous either when it is obvious that there is a better way of achieving the intended effects or when it is impossible to decide what the intended effects are. These cases of infelicitous bridging reference can also be [End Page 383] explained by means of relevance theory. Unacceptability is equated here with the speaker’s failure to achieve optimal relevance. The author concludes that relevance theory seems to be the most satisfactory model for dealing with bridging reference assignment as far as the resolution of bridging and its acceptability are concerned (Ch. 6, ‘Conclusions’, 197–209). The study is supported by three questionnaire surveys which are detailed in the appendix of the book (211–29). This book reads well and succeeds in presenting the topic in a clear, orderly manner. Carlos Inchaurralde University of Zaragoza Copyright © 2002 Linguistic Society of America