An Interactional Model for the Description of Text Understanding

Key words: 
• text understanding, constraints of tension, relevance theory, interactional model

Abstract: Text understanding is a dynamic cognitive process, operating on the basis of the relevance orientation of human cognition. During this process, the writer, reader and text interact with each other, resulting in tension, which exerts constraints on the text understanding. Among the three factors that have influence upon text understanding, the reader plays a leading role. Therefore, for the description of text understanding, a model can be suggested, within the framework of relevance theory that takes into account the interaction between the writer, reader and text, and stresses the constraints of tension on text understanding, which are produced by the interaction.