Relevance and lexical pragmatics* DEIRDRE WILSON Abstract The goal of lexical pragmatics is to explain how linguistically specified (‘literal’) word meanings are modified in use. While lexical-pragmatic processes such as narrowing, broadening and metaphorical extension are generally studied in isolation from each other, relevance theorists (Carston 2002, Wilson & Sperber 2002) have been arguing for a unified approach. I will continue this work by underlining some of the problems with more standard treatments, and show how a variety of lexical- pragmatic processes may be analysed as special cases of a general pragmatic adjustment process which applies spontaneously, automatically and unconsciously to fine-tune the interpretation of virtually every word. 1 Introduction Lexical pragmatics is a rapidly developing branch of linguistics that investigates the processes by which linguistically-specified (‘literal’) word meanings are modified in use. 1 Well-studied examples include narrowing (e.g. drink used to mean ‘alcoholic drink’), approximation (e.g. square used to mean ‘squarish’) and metaphorical extension (e.g. battleaxe used to mean ‘frightening person’). In much of the literature, narrowing, approximation and metaphorical extension have been seen as distinct pragmatic processes and studied in isolation from each other. I will *Earlier versions of this paper were presented at the European Society for Philosophy and Psychology, the International Pragmatics Association and the 8 th China Pragmatics Conference. Many thanks to the organisers and participants, to Dan Sperber and Robyn Carston for valuable ideas and inspiration, and to Tim Wharton, Rosa Vega-Moreno, Paula Rubio-Fernandez and the members of the UCL Pragmatics Reading Group. I would like to acknowledge the support of the AHRB under grant MRG-AN9291/APN16356 ‘A unified theory of lexical pragmatics’. 1 See e.g. Grice 1967; Ducrot 1972, 1984; Searle 1979; Lakoff & Johnson 1980; Sperber & Wilson 1985, 1998; Cruse 1986; Hobbs & Martin 1987; Lakoff 1987; Lahav 1989; Sweetser 1990; Horn 1992, 2000; Aitchison 1994; Bach 1994, 2001; Gibbs 1994; Copestake & Briscoe 1995; Franks 1995; Recanati 1995, 2004; Rips 1995; Bertuccelli Papi 1997; Carston 1997, 1999, 2002; Blutner 1998, 2002; Lascarides & Copestake 1998; Lasersohn 1999; Fauconnier & Turner 2002; Wilson & Sperber 2002, 2004; Merlini Barbaresi 2003.