本书是一本概括性很强、有关交际与认知的著作，也是语用学领域经典著作之一，它不仅涵盖了现代语用学的很多研究课题，还涉及现代交际理论，颇具独创性，对语言学、认知心理学及人类学影响极大。

Preface to Second Edition
List of Symbols
1 Communication
1 The code model and the semiotic approach to communication
2 Decoding and inference in verbal comprehension
3 The mutual-knowledge hypothesis
4 Grice's approach to ‘meaning' and communication
5 Should the code model and the inferential model be amalgamated?
6 Problems of definition
7 Problems of explanation: Grice's theory of conversation
8 Cognitive environments and mutual manifestness
9 Relevance and ostension
10 Ostensive-inferential communication
11 The informative intention
12 The communicative intention
2 Inference
1 Non-demonstrative inference
2 Logical forms, propositional attitudes and factual assumptions
3 Strength of assumptions
4 Deductive rules and concepts
5 The deductive device
6 Some types of deduction
7 Contextual effects: the role of deduction in non-demonstrative inference
3 Relevance
1 Conditions for relevance
2 Degrees of relevance: effect and effort
3 Is the context given or chosen?
4 A choice of contexts
5 Relevance to an individual
6 The relevance of phenomena and stimuli
7 The principle of relevance
8 How relevance theory explains ostensive-inferential communication
4 Aspects of verbal communication
1 Language and communication
2 Verbal communication, explicatures and implicatures
3 The identification of propositional form
4 The identification of implicatures
5 Propositional form and style: presuppositional effects
6 Implicatures and style: poetic effects
7 Descriptive and interpretive dimensions of language use
8 Literalness and metaphor
9 Echoic utterances and irony
10 Speech acts
Postface
Notes to First Edition
Notes to Second Edition
Notes to Postface
Bibliography
Index