Abstract

Abstract Relevance is a universal function of communication by which humans innately attempt to balance processing effort with the cognitive effect of an utterance. Relevance theory informs the cognitive and rhetorical dimensions of reading a narrative by (a) defining the conditions under which a text will initially be taken as a narrative (emphasizing context selection, display, and tellability) and (b) delimiting the unmarked cases of the ur‐conventions for reading narrative (naturalization and progression). These ur‐conventions and the Cognitive and Communicative Principles of Relevance also ground claims about the role played by narrative in humans’ search for rationality and moral identity.