IGWEBUIKE: African Journal of Arts and Humanities

There is a general assumption that what is relevant to one might be irrelevant to another. This is so because relevance is dependent on how the human mind selects and interprets transmitted stimuli. This paper provides a general insight into the relevance theory in pragmatics and its applications in language. The explication of the theory offered here is in accordance with the aim of pragmatic theory which is the explanation of how the hearer apprehends the intended interpretation of an utterance. Consequently, the paper asserts that interpretation is not decoded, rather it is inferred by a non-demonstrative inference process in which considerations of relevance play a central role. A description of relevance is given, while asserting that an utterance creates an expectation of relevance in the hearer, with the preferred interpretation being the one that best meets that expectation of relevance. The theory can be demonstrated by applying it to a wide range of examples and in this case language.

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