Meaning and Communication

Abstract

Grice revealed the close relationship between meaning and communication. Nevertheless, in the subsequent literature that deal with both notions we find that this relationship is traced inaccurately. The present paper analyzes one of the best attempts to overcome this misapprehension: Sperber and Wilson's relevance theory. Though revealing, this attempt does not provide us with an adequate solution as it does not get rid of the misapprehension. This leads these authors to assume a proposal on meaning that entails a setback with regards to the Gricean proposal because it is built up on unjustified criticisms of the definition of speaker's meaning as its starting point. These criticisms disappear when we clarify the relation between the notions as they are established by Grice. Likewise, it shall be defended that, if we understand communication as a rational process, it would be desirable to get support from the best available tools, that is, to make use of the theoretical framework provided by the theory of rational decision.