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Duchamp And Pragmatics, Kiam Loong Daniel Lai

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

There is a correspondence between the mechanism of visual communication in Duchamp’s art and the principles of pragmatics in linguistics. The process from Duchamp’s intended meaning encoded in his art to the correct interpretation on the part of the addressee is similar to the process in which intended meaning encoded in speech being accurately decoded by the addressee. This is because the correct interpretation in both processes involves inferences. Be it language or art, to fully understand the intended meaning of a statement, an addressee must first understand the natural meaning known as entailment; and subsequently uncover the unnatural, but …