Relevance theory as the foundation for an inclusive theory of communication

Abstract Sperber and Wilson’s relevance theory (RT) is well-equipped to develop into an inclusive theory of multimodal – and indeed all other – communication. However, in its “classic” variety, it typically focuses on spoken communication in a face-to-face situation. To fulfil its promise, it needs to be adapted and expanded to be able to accommodate all media, modes, and genres. Forceville (2020. Visual and multimodal communication: Applying the relevance principle. Oxford: Oxford University Press) launches proposals that enable Sperber and Wilson’s classic RT to account for visual and multimodal mass-communication. This paper presents key concepts of RT, responds to criticisms of Forceville’s version of the theory by Ntouvlis (2021. Review of Forceville (2020). Multimodal Communication ), and discusses six visual/multimodal case studies to demonstrate RT’s value for further developing multimodality as a robust scholarly discipline.