Pragmatic Effects of Non-Conventional Interpretations of Utterances

Abstract

This study aims to examine the pragmatic effects arising from the discrepancy between the intended meaning of utterances and their interpretation in Gilles Paris's novel Autobiographie d'une courgette, based on Relevance Theory (Sperber & Wilson, 1986). Through a qualitative analysis of representative dialogues and narrative passages, the study reveals that the gap between children's interpretations and the meanings adults intend to convey generates distinctive pragmatic effects such as dramatic irony, humorous situations, and sympathetic emotions. These effects simultaneously reflect the children's characteristic ways of perceiving the world. Consequently, the study proposes a literal or semantic translation strategy to maintain these pragmatic effects with brief explanatory notes when necessary, in order to enable target readers to access the layers of meaning and emotions equivalent to those in the original text.