This shows that the audience is entitled to expect a level of relevance high enough to warrant his attending to the stimulus, and which is, moreover, highest level of relevance that the communicator was capable of achieving goals(Sperber and Wilson 2001，270-71).In other words, relevance must meet two conditions to be deemed as optimal relevance. One is it must be regarded as relevant enough by the receivers otherwise they will not bother to process the information. The other condition is that the optimal relevance should agree with speaker’s abilities and preferences.
A good example is given by Xiong(107) to illustrate the second condition: If X wants others to know he is leaving home, he could say: (1) I will not be home from 4 to 6 (2) I will be at Y’s home from 4 to 6
(3) I will be having an convention at Y’s home from 4 to 6
It depends on the real situation to decide what the optimal relevance is. In some cases where the X is not allowed or for some reason unwilling to tell the truth ,he may not fully answer the question. This cannot be regarded as irrelevant but because his utterance is compatible with his abilities and preferences, it is still be regarded as optimal relevance.
All the notions we have discussed above contributes to the understanding of principle of relevance:
Every act of ostensive communication communicates a presumption of its own optimal relevance (Sperber and Wilson 2001，158)
In summary, the principle of relevance can be interpreted as: Ostensive communication is such a process where the communicator uses stimulus to make his intention mutually manifest and the receiver searches for existing optimal relevance, makes inferences and interprets communicator’s intention.
3.Interpreting Deviation from the Perspective of Relevance Theory
Geoffrey Leech(1969) describes eight ways of deviation in poetic language in the book A Linguistic Guide to English Poetry They are lexical deviation, phonological deviation, grammatical deviation, graphological deviation, semantic deviation,
deviation of register, dialectical deviation and deviation of historical period. As a matter of fact, these categories of deviation not only appear in poetry but are also applied in English advertising, though not all of them are frequently used in advertising.
3.1. Lexical deviation
Lexical deviation refers to the coinage of words. For instance, to attach a prefix and suffix to an existing word as shown below:
(1) The orangiest drink in the world. (Orange juice)
(2) Re-tuned, re-conditioned, Heck, it's been re-everythinged.( Rolling Stone) In the two examples, orangiest and re-everythinged are two words that do not exist in any English dictionary, therefore use of these two words is a typical use of deviational language.
A case study is presented to exam the first example from the perspective of Relevance Theory:
In that sentence, the word “orangiest” serves as a stimulus. It helps to shape the cognitive environment that”-est” is a marker of superlative degree, so one can infer that “orangiest” is an adjective which describes the state of being affluent in oranges. The advertising designer’s intention is to accent the richness of real oranges. In this way, the intention is made mutually manifest. According to Relevance Theory, it is the stimulus, the deviation in this case, that attract receiver’s attention and start to search relevance and process information intended to convey by the advertising designer.
That is how Relevance Theory accounts for the process of common people interpreting deviational use of language in advertising. However, the same interpreting of this intention can by no means be guaranteed. For different receivers there can be different associations of the richness of oranges, such as “tasty”, “healthy”, “being able to satisfy one’s thirsty”.
3.2 Grammatical deviation
Grammatical deviation can be reflected in the change of the part of speech. For example: Google it!
In that slogan, “Google” is a name of a company which is famous for on-line
searching engine. However, Google, noun as it is, is used as a verb in this case. That is a typical change of the part of speech, which is deemed as deviation.
“Google” functions as a stimulus in this utterance. When looking at the word, advertising receivers will first think of the company. Then a closer look at the slogan helps them to find the optimal relevance, where “Google” represents a movement to search on the website of Google. It is regarded as the optimal relevance because it satisfy the two conditions in the definition of “optimal relevance”. They are (a)The ostensive stimulus is relevant enough for it to be worth the addressee's effort to process it.(b)The ostensive stimulus is the most relevant one compatible with the communicator's abilities and preferences (2001，270)
That example shows how optimal relevance is discovered when there are more than one way to interpret the stimulus. Although in this case it takes more processing efforts, it has for sure achieved greater cognitive effect. Advertising designers therefore gain more attention through the use of stimulus “Google” . Grammatical deviation can also be a violation of syntax. For example:
…an automatic applicator gently smoothes on soft crème or high-shine color for a smooth silky finish that lasts. And lasts.
In that piece of advertisement, the word “and” appears in the very beginning of a sentence, which is against grammatical norm. The right sentence should be” …for a smooth silky finish that lasts and lasts” The intentional wrong punctuation is one form of deviation and used in this particular sentence as stimulus.
In the last sentence, the verb “lasts” is emphasized by being repeated. Looking from the perspective of ostensive-inferential communication, one can find the first layer of ostension is to point out the information that “a smooth silky finish lasts.” The second layer of ostension is to make the advertising designer’s intention manifest, which is to highlight the “long-lasting” feature of the product. On seeing the repetition and wrong punctuation, namely the stimulus, the audience will search for relevance and process the information to figure out why the author of that advertisement made that “mistake” and deduce the conclusion that the author tries to vividly picture how
the perfect state that is achieved by the product lasts.
3.3 Graphological deviation
Graphological deviation can refer to the replacement of words by images.
E.g.. Bring to my life. (“Sunny” beverage)
It is not common in advertising English therefore will not be thoroughly discussed here.
Graphological deviation more fresquently refers to the intentional misspelling of words.
For instance: Quik chocolate milk
In this slogan, the word “quick” is intentionally misspelled as “quik”, a word that does not exist. “Quik” is a deviational use of language and also a stimulus.
What is the process like when people interpret this slogan? The explanation given by Relevance Theory is:
First, the process of ostension. The stimulus makes it mutually manifest that “quik” is homophonic with “quick” and the only difference it is more convenient to write because the reduction of the letter “c”.
Second, the process of inference. The receivers try to interpret the intention behind the stimulus and they will find the relevance between the “convenience” feature of the word play and the same feature of the chocolate milk itself. That is to say, the chocolate milk can be made quickly like a instant noodle and save you time.
By now, the ostensive-inferential communication is completed in this advertisement.
3.4 Semantic deviation
Semantic deviation can be interpreted as seemingly absurd expression. Leech refers to it as “the very face-value oddity lends it abnormal power of significance”.
For instance: A Sunny day is a cool day (“Sunny” beverage)
This slogan seems illogical at first sight, because a sunny day is usually warm instead of cool. However, the oddity is an intentionally designed stimulus in this
slogan. The author uses a pun “sunny” here. It can mean the state of being full of sunshine and also can refer to the brand of a beverage: “Sunny”.
According to the principle of relevance: Every act of ostensive communication communicates a presumption of its own optimal relevance (Sperber and Wilson 2001，158) Only the second interpretation of “Sunny” meets the two conditions of optimal relevance: a. It is relevant enough to worth the receiver’s processing effort and b. It is compatible with the author’s ability and preference. Therefore the receivers of this advertisement can infer that the real intention is the beverage “Sunny” brings you a cool day. That is how principle of relevance is reflected in an ostensive communication(the shorthand for ostensive-inferential communication ).
Due to the availability of multimedia, semantic deviation can be also applied to illustrations. See the example below:
Two cans a day! (Beer)
words, the V gesture
Churchill made can be interpreted as a pun in this particular situation. It “says” victory and also means the number “two”. The principle of relevance indicates the illustration of Churchill does not mean that victory belongs to British people. The optional relevance is as made manifest in the slogan: two cans a day. It can have the humorous effect also the association that this beer brings you victory.
3.5 Other deviations
The following deviations are not common in English advertising, therefore they will be introduced but not be thoroughly discussed.
Phonological deviation means to change the way a word is normally pronounced. It can also refer to the use of rhyme.
Deviation of register refers to the change of register, which according to Leech is varieties of English distinguished by use in relation to social context. (1966a).That is to say, to use deviation of register can mean to use language without taking into
In that advertisement, if we convert the illustration into