--- abstract: 'This paper questions the widespread view that verbal communication is governed by a maxim, norm or convention of truthfulness which applies at the level of what is literally meant, or what is said. Pragmatic frameworks based on this view must explain the frequent occurrence and acceptability of loose and figurative uses of language. We argue against existing explanations of these phenomena and provide an alternative account, based on the assumption that verbal communication is governed not by expectations of truthfulness but by expectations of relevance, raised by literal, loose and figurative uses alike. Sample analyses are provided, and some consequences of this alternative account are explored. In particular, we argue that the notions of ‘literal meaning’ and ‘what is said’ play no useful theoretical role in the study of language use, and that the nature of explicit communication will have to be rethought.' altloc: - http://www.dan.sperber.com/truthfulness.htm chapter: ~ commentary: ~ commref: ~ confdates: ~ conference: ~ confloc: ~ contact_email: ~ creators_id: [] creators_name: - family: Wilson given: Deirdre honourific: '' lineage: '' - family: Sperber given: Dan honourific: '' lineage: '' date: 2002 date_type: published datestamp: 2002-05-28 department: ~ dir: disk0/00/00/22/26 edit_lock_since: ~ edit_lock_until: ~ edit_lock_user: ~ editors_id: [] editors_name: [] eprint_status: archive eprintid: 2226 fileinfo: /style/images/fileicons/text_html.png;/2226/1/truthfulness.htm full_text_status: public importid: ~ institution: ~ isbn: ~ ispublished: inpress issn: ~ item_issues_comment: [] item_issues_count: 0 item_issues_description: [] item_issues_id: [] item_issues_reported_by: [] item_issues_resolved_by: [] item_issues_status: [] item_issues_timestamp: [] item_issues_type: [] keywords: 'cognition, communication, implicature, linguistics, literalness, philosophy of language, pragmatics, psychology, relevance, relevance theory, tropes, truthfulness, vagueness, what is said, explicitness, explicature, Grice' lastmod: 2011-03-11 08:54:55 latitude: ~ longitude: ~ metadata_visibility: show note: ~ number: ~ pagerange: ~ pubdom: FALSE publication: Mind publisher: ~ refereed: TRUE referencetext: | Bach, Kent 1994: ‘Conversational Impliciture’. 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Wilson, Deirdre 2000: ‘Metarepresentation in Linguistic Communication’, in Sperber 2000, pp. 411–48. relation_type: [] relation_uri: [] reportno: ~ rev_number: 8 series: ~ source: ~ status_changed: 2007-09-12 16:43:31 subjects: - ling-prag - phil-lang - psy-ling succeeds: ~ suggestions: ~ sword_depositor: ~ sword_slug: ~ thesistype: ~ title: Truthfulness and relevance type: journalp userid: 465 volume: ~