RELEVANCE ASSIGNMENT AS A COMPLEX ENDEAVOUR: THE CASE OF THE BIG BANG THEORY

Abstract

The paper presents an analysis of the specific discourse retrieved from the popular sitcom The Big Bang Theory, which abounds in dialogues containing a large amount of unnecessary and scientific-like explanations of common phenomena in everyday situations and as such are interesting to analyse from the Relevance Theory perspective. The aim of the paper is to construct a mechanism of relevance assignment in such specific discourse, having in mind the co-dependent relationship between contextual effects and processing effort. This relationship is influenced by three factors: background knowledge, speakers’ communicative intentions and hearers’ abilities to recognize them and respond accordingly, and the amount of information presented in a particular dialogue. On the basis of the presence or absence of these factors and their complex relationships, examples have been classified into two categories, depending on whether relevance has been successfully assigned or not. Moreover, examples in which relevance has been successfully assigned are further analysed according to the amount of processing effort one needs to employ in order to understand the message and respond accordingly. The examples of false or null relevance assignment are particularly interesting since they are a source of verbal humour in this type of discourse.