Linguistic signs do not coincide with intended or interpreted meanings. For relevance theory, this theoretical commonplace merely demonstrates the inferential nature of language. For Paul de Man, on the contrary, it suggested that language is unstable, random, arbitrary, mechanical, ironic and inhuman. This book seeks to shows that relevance theory is a more plausible account of communications, cognition and literary interpretation than the deconstruction theory de Man elaborated from readings of Rousseau, Hegel and Nietzsche.